Character reconstruction
by weebee
Summary: DEAD! Ranma Saotome was the third most perverted person in Nerima, and not just according to Akane. That was, of course, until he fainted one day... (This story is dead and will not reciev updates. Many concepts have been reused, in my oppinion more compotently, in "Deja Vu All Over Again.")
1. Desperate battles

Character reconstruction. By Weebee.

Ranma wakes up in a world where he is… well… a complete and utter pervert. Can our pigtailed aquatransexual reconstruct a life out of what this strange peeping tom and groper has left for him?

Prologue, Desperate battles.

"Akane!" Ranma yelled, as the doll that had once been his fiancée ripped itself free of his hand, carving a hole in the fireball that the king of phoenix mountain had thrown. Ranma realized that this was his chance to defeat the other man, but what had happened to Akane? Looking around frantically, Ranma didn't see any sign of the shrivelled body of his fiancée, and he began to feel a sick tension in his stomach.

"Saffron! You… Bastard!" Ranma yelled, gathering a rather large amount of energy in his hands. He was originally going to throw a modified Hiryu Shoten Ha through the hole that Akane had created, but now he had a LOT more power. He could feel an all consuming rage aimed at the phoenix in front of him, and it boosted his Chi to new heights. With an inarticulate roar, Ranma released the immense bolt of anger energy, unknowingly doing something else in the process. That anger had consumed so much of his soul at that moment, that he had effectively fired his entire life essence at saffron in one colossal blast. It left the body of one Ranma Saotome nothing more than an empty husk, and it fell to the ground, unmoving.

Saffron looked on in horror as the ball of energy came towards him. If he was ripped into enough pieces, he would have to be reborn, but this massive energy attack wasn't going to rip him apart. It was going to DESTROY him, right down to the molecules that made him up. It was going to utterly disintegrate him, and he didn't think that he could be reborn from that. With a wry, fatalistic smile, The king of Phoenix mountain saw that the girl that the landling was so eager to protect had landed in a pool of the water that would bring her back to life. Unfortunately for the phoenix, Ranma had lost sight of her when she had and had assumed the worst. With a sigh of defeat and a new respect for the power of landlings, Saffron of the Phoenix was obliterated from the world of the living, not even the smallest piece of his body left for re-incarnation.

In Heaven, The technicians of Ygdrasil were going insane. No, that wasn't entirely accurate. One particular system admin was going insane, and her name was Urd. Why the HELL did that have to happen to Saotome? He was always a very chaotic factor in the program, One that not even the ultimate force could really get it's control around, but she had never thought that he could throw the plans of heaven off track so drastically. The problem was, that Ranma Saotome's purpose on Midgard was to keep Saffron in line. Hell, his entire family's purpose was to do this, and his descendents usually had to battle the phoenix king at least once every couple of generations, to ensure that he never got enough power to ascend to Demi-god status. That was why the Saotome Ranma factor had been introduced. Asgard and Nifelheme weren't allowed to interfere in mortal affairs directly, so they couldn't stop the power mad phoenix, but it was in both of their best interests to keep a new being from entering service as a god, causing a new demon to have to be inducted as well, and making the doubled system shuffle again. Now, Saotome Ranma and his descendants weren't needed anymore. He had done a very good job of completely annihilating Saffron, so that only a soul remained, and he had killed himself in the process… but it seemed so unfair. He was SUPPOSED to spend the rest of his natural life with his wife and eventually several children, Running the Tendo Dojo. He was SUPPOSED to be happy, not dead. It was to be his reward for his unknowing work for the Kami and Demons, and it had been stripped away from him due to one misunderstanding. Rather ironic, considering this mortal's life.

With a sigh, Urd looked for something she could do to help Ranma. He would never be happy with a life in heaven, it was too peaceful for him, and Nifelheme was kind of harsh on it's residents. Not a place for a reasonably good and honourable person to be sent.

Then, Urd saw a report flashing on her screen, from an inter-dimensional connection, to another Ygdrasil unit somewhere else. Each dimension had it's own terminal of the super computer system, and they were connected in order to help each other if one dimension had resources that another lacked.

Curiously, Urd pulled up the message on the screen.

From, Goddess 2nd class, category two, limited. Urd Odinsdaughter

To, Goddess first class, first category, unlimited, Urd Odinsdaughter.

Message. I hate that another version of me is so highly ranked. Anyways, I have a problem. Plan "Saffron" has been derailed, due to a slight accident on the part of the goddess who was handling it. Ranma Saotome is NOT a suitable candidate for defeating the phoenix king, and we do not have any other martial artists who are strong enough. Our closest possible match is Prince Herb of the Musk, but he is not as powerful as normal due to lack of confrontation with Saotome Ranma, and even he is not powerful enough to defeat Saffron. Requesting resource transfer, Saotome Ranma or equivalent level fighter for operation Saffron.

Current time until start of Op. Saffron, 4 months.

Urd blinked. She read the request over again, and then scrolled down to details. Her eye twitched. "Ranma didn't go on the training trip because I was DRUNK!" She yelled, leaning forward, with her eyes bugging. It was true that Sake was her power source, but she always drank in moderation in order to keep her faculties clear and open. Then again, this wasn't her. It was some other dimensional version of her. This Urd almost sounded like her younger sister Beldandy. Such a trouble maker she was! Looking between the request file and the soul of one Ranma Saotome that was awaiting processing, Urd began to smile slightly. "This could work…" She muttered, typing rapidly.

In the temple of the three goddesses, Urd sighed in relief as a reply came to her urgent interdimensional resource request. Apparently, The Urd there had managed to complete Operation Saffron already, and she was sending her her Ranma Saotome. Urd blinked for a moment. She didn't think that two versions of the same person could live in the same dimension for very long before the visitor began degrading due to the conflicts in the Ygdrasil. Shrugging it off, she took a swig of her sake, sighing in relief. Now, all she had to do was think of a new scheme to get Beldandy and Keichi to get in the sack together. Ah, such simple pleasures.

HR

A ward away, a pigtailed boy grumbled to himself as he walked down the street. His blue Furinkan boys uniform was slightly ripped, and he had a lump on his head. 'Jeas. They didn't have to get so mad. All I was doing was having a little peak…' He thought, rubbing the bump on his head tenderly. 'And now mom wants me to go pick up the shrimp at school. Can this day get any worse?' To answer his question, a small headache, separate from the one caused by the lump on his skull, started in the back of his brain. Coming up on the front gates of Nerima District middle school, Ranma looked around for the family member that he 'affectionately' called the twerp. Spotting her, he called out. "Hey Ranko, Get over here!"

The twelve year old redhead talking to a group of friends in the middle of the school yard looked over to her older brother's yelling voice and sighed. "Sorry guys. I gotta go." She said, before running off.

"poor Ranko…" One of the girls sighed, looking after her friend.

"Yeh. Living with that jerk would have to really suck." The other friend said, nodding sagely.

"Oh well. Wanna go play in the park?" The first said, looking to the second, who nodded. The two girls ran off, giggling.

Ranko glared after them, wishing that she could go too. Unfortunately, Her mother had sent her older brother to pick her up, and as a result, she wasn't let play for a little longer like she would have been if the woman had come herself. "Hi Ranma." She said, looking up at her brother with a bit of sisterly affection and annoyance, but more of the latter than the former.

"C'mon twerp. I gotta get home to call Hiro and Dai." Ranma said, walking off and assuming his sister was following.

Ranko sighed and quickly tagged along with her brother. His friends weren't quite as big perverts as he was, but they were pretty bad. She was just lucky that she was too young for the three of them to leer at.

After a couple blocks of walking, Ranma stopped and rubbed at his forehead. "Stupid headache…" He grumbled, before continuing.

Ranko giggled. "Did Akane give that to you again?" She asked, smirking mischievously at her brother.

"No, that macho chick did NOT give me this bump… it was Ukyo." Ranma grumbled, looking down in embarrassment. "Besides, that wasn't what I was complaining about."

Ranko gave Ranma a disbelieving stare. "Sure big brother, sure." She said, sarcastically. Then again, she wouldn't put it past Ukyo to wallop Ranma as hard as Akane. He peeped on her nearly as much, anyways. It was strange, since she usually wore a male uniform, but the Okonomiyaki chef was rather pretty when she was in gym class, or at least that was what Ranma said.

As the two siblings reached the corner that lead to the street where Tofu's clinic was, a place of Doom for Ranma ever since the Kasumi incident, The pigtailed boy reached up for his forehead again, Rubbing it harder this time. "This damned Headache!" He said, holding his throbbing head, before falling to his knees.

"Ranma, are you okay?" Ranko asked, running up to her older brother. Sure, the guy was a pain, but he was family.

"I'm fine twe…" Ranma started, before falling forward to the ground.

"Ranma? Ranma? Wake up!" Ranko said, beginning to panic as she shook her older brother. Much to her consternation, he didn't move. "Ranma, this ain't funny. Wake up!" Ranko said, shaking her brother even harder. When nothing happened, Ranko decided to run and get Dr. Tofu, Kasumi incident or no. Ranma needed some real help now.

HR

Onno Tofu sat in his office, having just seen his last patient of the afternoon. As he was about to close up shop, a young girl ran up the street, calling his name. "Dr. Tofu, Dr. Tofu! Come quick!" The girl said, stopping in front of him and grabbing his hand, trying to drag him along.

"Calm down, What's wrong Ranko?" Tofu asked, recognising the girl.

"It's Ranma. He's hurt I think. He just fell down on the street and he isn't moving. You gotta help, doc!" Ranko said, in a panic.

Tofu's eyes darkened at the name of the elder Saotome child, but they lightened again as Ranko spoke. He didn't care what kind of things his patients did, if they were injured then they had to be treated. He had taken an oath to protect all life, after all. "All right. Come on Ranko. Let's go see your brother." Tofu said, letting the little girl drag him along.

As the two reached the corner between the street that his clinic was on and the main street, Tofu blinked as he saw Ranma, his body bathed in a blue glow. Running over, Tofu knelt beside the still form of the young boy, taking his pulse and reading his aura. This is odd…" Tofu muttered, as his practiced medical Chi sight played over Ranma's prone form.

"What's odd, doc?" Ranko asked, poking her head over Tofu's shoulder.

"His Chi flows. They're getting stronger. A LOT stronger. I haven't seen this kind of strength in anything less than a Chi adept, and your brother certainly isn't that." Tofu said, referring to how little Ranma practiced the martial arts, despite his father's frequent protests about it. Ranko had been the only Saotome child who showed any interest in the fighting arts, and Genma had flat out refused to train her because she was a girl.

"What does that mean?" Ranko asked, curiously.

"I don't know Ranko. Let's get your brother to my clinic." Tofu said, hoisting Ranma's body onto his back and carrying it down the road.

HR

Half an hour later, Genma and Nodoka Saotome were standing in Dr. Tofu's waiting room, Nodoka looking worried and Genma just looking annoyed.

"So he just got beaten by those women again. Nothing to worry about." Genma growled, angry that his son had been beaten by women and that he had had to stop his Shogi game with Soun Tendo to come to the clinic.

Nodoka looked angrily at her husband. "Genma, how could you say that!" She snapped, her angry look turning into a glair. "Our son is in hospital and you dismiss it like it's nothing!" She couldn't believe the callousness of her husband. Then again, she had seen it many times, and should probably be expecting it by now.

Dr. Tofu walked out of the treatment room, looking confused.

"Is my son all right?" Nodoka asked, worried.

"Ranma is fine, I think." Tofu said, uncertainly.

"You think?" Nodoka asked, nervously. "What's wrong with him?"

"Well… Ranma's body is fine, in fact, it's better than fine. He's growing muscle tissue as we speak and is actually becoming more fit than he was. His Chi, however, is a different story. It's completely rearranging itself. It's a lot more ordered now, Like a martial artist's battle aura. It's also got a lot more…" He was hesitant to say this to the Saotome Matriarch, who was rather fixated on her son being 'manly,' "Female Chi."

Genma, who had briefly studied Chi techniques under his old master, looked surprised. "Female Chi? Why would he have that?"

Tofu shrugged. "I don't know. He's got about as much as a doctor, or other passive man. More than I have, in fact. He seems to be turning into a warrior with a rather high Chi reserve, with an almost even balance of male and Female life force. Male is dominant, of course."

Nodoka, who knew nothing of Chi studies, spoke up. "Can I see him anyways, doctor, or is this Chi problem dangerous to other people?"

"Oh, you can see him, Ma'am. Come this way." Tofu said, leading Nodoka into the back room of the clinic, Genma following.

The Saotome woman gasped as she caught sight of her son. He still looked like her son, but he was different. His muscles, which had been lightly defined before, now were sharply chiselled, though still small. His face was thinner than she remembered it from this morning, and the small fat deposits that were a natural part of anyone who didn't take fitness VERY seriously were gone. He also seemed a lot skinnier than he had been, as if he were built for speed.

"What happened to him?" Nodoka asked, in shock.

"I don't know, Ma'am." Tofu said, shrugging.

HR

Ranma felt the last of his life energy leave him, an overwhelming emptiness taking it's place. As he realized that he had fired too much Chi at Saffron, Ranma plummeted to the floor of the crater where they had been fighting. He felt deep sorrow that he hadn't saved Akane, until he saw her full sized body laying in a pool of water, and her chest rising slowly. Ranma smiled softly as he let his eyes close, no more energy left to keep him alive. His mission was complete, anyways. Akane was safe and the person who had put her in danger was killed. Even if this last thought disturbed him, it didn't matter. Nothing did anymore.

As Ranma felt a floating sensation, he opened his eyes. He could, as many religions claimed, see a white light in front of him. As he floated towards it, something showed up in front of him. In large black Kanji, the words "System resource re-allocation" flashed. Shrugging, he turned, to see a second tunnel, leading to a much dimmer light. Going towards it, he felt a pulling sensation as he saw something fly past him in the other direction. Falling into the light, Ranma felt air moving across his skin. He felt his Chi, slightly weak but still very strong, flowing through his body. Slowly, so that the light didn't blind him, he opened his eyes.

END.

Next time!

What did Ranma do to Tofu, what is the Cannon Ranma going to think when he wakes up, and finally, what WAS I smoking when I came up with this?

Oh. You may notice that all of my new fics have been taken off of FFN. This was done because I had too many plot lines on the go. They WILL be back some day, but I had to cut down on the plots and couldn't decide what new one I would continue. As a result, I put them in my "Vault" and started a brand new fic. AOL WILL continue, but all of my other "In progress" fics are on the shelf for at least a couple months. Sorry, guys!


	2. Awakening and confusion

Chapter 1. Awakening and confusion.

"He's awake!" Ranma heard, a voice that sounded kind of like his own echoing through his head. No, the voice sounded like his girl form, but it was higher. Somehow seeming younger. As he eased his eyes open, Ranma noticed that he was staring at the ceiling of Dr. Tofu's clinic, a sight that he had woken to see many times in his life. "Ngh… what hit me?" He asked, sitting up slightly. To his amazement, he didn't feel any pain from his head, or anywhere else. Usually he was in to see the doc due to some blunt head trauma or a large amount of injury.

"That's what we want to know." Dr. Tofu said, as he walked up beside Ranma and looked him over. "Do you know what happened to you?"

"I… I was fighting Saffron. I had just thrown this really big Chi blast and…" Ranma started, before his eyes widened in alarm. "Where's Akane?" he asked, looking around in a panic.

Tofu dismissed Ranma's strange comments in order to calm him down. Even if he didn't like the boy, he was still his patient and he had a responsibility to care for him. "Miss Tendo is fine. Calm down, Ranma." He said, putting a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Now how about you tell me who this saffron that you were apparently fighting is?"

After Ranma had told Dr. Tofu about Saffron, a little girl's voice came from nearby, still sounding curiously like Ranma's own female high soprano. "Ranma, that was one heck of a dream you had." She giggled, causing Ranma to look over at her.

Instantly, the pigtailed martial artist was on guard. In front of him, stood a figure that most people would have to be nuts to consider a threat. Ranma wasn't most people. The girl had red hair, falling to her shoulders and unbound. Her eyes were a bright blue, the same shade as his own, and she looked to be about twelve years old. "Who the heck are you?" Ranma asked, his eyes narrowing.

Tofu blinked in surprise from his position next to the bed. He still had his hand on Ranma's shoulder, and could feel the boy ready to lash out or run if the situation got any weirder. He could also see waves of confusion and a little bit of fear coming from the boy. It was also quite evident that he had no idea who his own sister was. "Mr. And Mrs. Saotome, bring Ranko and come into the waiting room." Tofu said, and then turned to Ranma. "We will be right back in to explain things, Ranma."

The pigtailed martial artist nodded, confused.

A minute or so later, four people were standing out side of Ranma's clinic room, and Tofu was looking at the other three.

"What's wrong, doctor?" Nodoka asked, wondering at her son's strange behaviour and the story that he had told.

Tofu sighed. "I don't know. I'd think it was amnesia if he didn't recognise all of us, but he seems to only have a problem with Ranko. His story is strange, especially the part about an immortal phoenix and Akane, but what concerns me is the curse that he mentioned a few times. I don't know what it is, and he seems to think that I should. There's also the fact that he has physically changed along with the mental changes that you have seen. He is about on par with that old fool of a master that Soun and Genma train under.

"R… Ranma is as strong as the master?" Genma stuttered, his eyes wide in shock.

"As far as I can tell, yes." Tofu confirmed. He did not voice his concerns that given Ranma's character, he could become exactly like the old freak, but they were there. "I think we should be careful not to scare Ranma. He is very jumpy for some reason and I don't know how well he can control his new larger Chi reserve. Just try to take whatever happens in stride until we find out what's wrong with him."

The Saotomes nodded reluctantly before the group entered Ranma's room again.

"So ya gunna tell me what's goin on, doc?" Ranma asked, looking at Tofu.

"Ranma, I think that you may have gotten a head injury that caused you to forget certain things and misunderstand others. I know this may be hard for you to accept, since you remember everything so clearly, but the incident you described with the phoenix king has never happened, and in fact I believe that Miss Tendo would probably beat you up if you mentioned it to her."

"Phoenix mountain never happened?" Ranma asked, blinking in confusion. "All right, how do you explain her, then?" He said, pointing at Ranko. "She looks like my cursed form, but younger…" Then his eyes widened. "Fine. If ya wanna convince me of this theory of yours, Go get me some cold water."

"Cold water?" Tofu asked, blinking in confusion. "What do you need that for?"

"Just trust me, okay doc?" Ranma said.

Tofu sighed and walked to a sink at the side of the room, grabbing a paper cup and filling it. "Here you go, Ranma." He said, handing it to the pigtailed boy.

Ranma looked at the contents questioningly before dumping it over his head. For a second, nothing happened. Ranma's expression was a mixture of happiness and disbelief before he started feeling the tingle, as he always did. It felt a lot stronger this time, the same way it had the first time he had fallen into the pool. Slowly, as if it was unsure how to do it's job, Ranma's body began to become blurry and indistinct.

"What's going on?" Nodoka asked, raising a hand to her mouth.

"I don't know." Tofu said, noticing that Ranma's Chi aura was changing again.

As the haziness around Ranma's body cleared away, everyone in the room except for Ranma herself stared in shock. Now sitting on the bed, was a seventeen year old duplicate of Ranko, with her red hair tied back in a pigtail. "Sorry doc, but I got my doubts about your idea now." Ranma said, in her higher female voice.

Nodoka's mouth opened and closed rapidly, while Genma just stared, his eyes wide. Ranko tentatively moved forward and looked the girl on the bed over. "Ranma?" She asked, tentatively.

"Yeh?" Ranma asked, looking down at the girl, The surprised and wondering look on her face keeping Ranma from being suspicious of anything.

"Are you my sister now?" Ranko said, deadpan, with a rather large smirk. Ranma face faulted, twitching slightly. Sitting back up, Ranma looked at the little girl in annoyance and curiosity. "First off, I'm a guy. I just change into a girl with cold water. Hot water changes me back. Second, you're my sister?"

Nodoka, who was still slightly shell shocked, spoke up. "Yes. Ranko is about twelve. You mean you don't remember her at all?" She asked, feeling odd talking to what looked like an older version of her daughter rather than her son.

Ranma shook her head. "No, I don't remember her at all… The last thing I remembered, I was an only child."

Tofu cut in, before the family could continue to talk. "I'm sorry, but Ranma appears to be, if not normal, at least healthy. Can you please leave my office now?' His professional demeanour was falling away now that his patient appeared to be out of danger, and he was looking hard at Ranma.

Ranma noticed the almost glare and shivered. 'Man, what'd I do?' She wondered, but quickly got off of the bed. "Can I have some hot water before I leave?" She asked, looking at the sink. Tofu gave a small nod and Ranma went to the sink, turning on the hot tap and splashing herself. He arranged the slightly ripped Furinkan boys uniform that he was wearing, wondering why it was a bit more broad in the shoulders than he was used to. He didn't wear uniforms much, but they usually weren't this loose.

As the family left the clinic, Nodoka paying Dr. Tofu for his services, Ranma turned down the street and started to head off. "Where are you going, son?" Nodoka asked, looking at him quizzically.

"I'm goin home." Ranma said, looking back at her in confusion.

"Home is this way." Nodoka said, pointing back towards the main street. With a confused shrug, Ranma followed Nodoka and Genma, the little girl walking next to him and throwing uncertain glances at him.

Ranma blinked as the group of four people came into sight of the Saotome home. It was his mother's house, but not completely destroyed. Not only that, but it had a very small dojo next to it that looked like it hadn't been used in a couple of years. "This place looks kinda different." Ranma muttered, walking up the front walk and inside.

He quickly walked down the hall to where he thought his old room was and opened the door, only to see a little girl's bedroom. No, actually it looked more like Akane's room. It was decorated for a girl, most definitely, but it was rather plain. There were several barbells in one corner and a poster of a popular female martial artist on one wall. As Ranma looked around, Ranko walked up behind him.

"Ranma, what are you doing looking into my room?" She asked, in a combination of annoyance and confusion.

"Your room?" Ranma said, slowly. "Um… Sorry. I thought it was mine." He explained. "No wonder it has a lotta girls stuff in it." Shrugging, he walked down the hall, avoiding his father and mother's bedroom and finding a door at the end of the hall. Opening it, his mouth hung open in disbelief. The room reminded him of his friend Hiroshi's place. There were a couple of pin up posters on the walls, as well as a few ahem not for children Magazines laying on his dresser. Slowly walking in, an expression of disbelief frozen on his face, he noticed a small computer system set up in one corner, something that he barely knew how to use, along with a telephone. He flinched as he saw another poster that was over top of the computer. It was a girl in a cat costume, posing seductively.

Shivering, Ranma grabbed the poster and rolled it up as fast as he could, trying not to think of the contents. "THIS is getting destroyed." He said, vehemently, before walking out of the room and down the hall. Walking to the front yard of the house, Ranma used a burst of Chi energy to incinerate the poster of the cat girl down to it's component ashes. "That's better…" He sighed, before seeing his father looking at him strangely.

"Ranma, do that again." The old man said, tossing Ranma a piece of wood.

Ranma shrugged. "All right…" He said, before flash frying the wood the same way he had the poster. "What's wrong, pop?" He asked.

Genma didn't respond, but charged Ranma with a battle cry. Coming in to try and get the boy in a headlock, Genma was surprised to see Ranma easily notice his move and dodge it, before delivering a hammer blow to his exposed back after the missed lunge. Genma hit the ground with a loud THUD, causing Nodoka to come to the front door and look out. "Genma, are you trying to train Ranma again?" She asked, before she saw that her husband was laid out on the ground, his eyes shut in pain.

"Pop, you okay?" Ranma asked, extending a hand to help his father up.

"I… I'm fine, Ranma." Genma said, rubbing his back. "You're very powerful. Almost as powerful as your old man!" He continued, laughing.

Ranma snorted. "I've been beatin you since I was fourteen, and you know it." He said, before seeing the disbelieving looks on Nodoka and Genma's faces. "y'mean I haven't?" He asked, confused.

"You said that you weren't interested in the martial arts." Nodoka said, still looking surprised. "Your father gave up on really training you several years ago."

"So… you've been trainin Ranko, then?" Ranma asked, wondering if he should spar with the girl that was claiming to be his little sister.

"Of course not! No girl can be strong in the martial arts!" Genma declared, pompously.

Ranma had been hearing that for his entire life, and for much of the time he had believed it. Then, Jusenkyo had happened, and he had been forced to admit that women were only usually less skilled than men because they weren't trained as hard. The only exception he knew to this rule was Shampoo, and he truthfully hadn't seen her train either, despite her claims to be a warrior. Narrowing his eyes, he asked, "Do ya want me to get a cup of cold water and beat ya again?"

Genma smirked. "You can try!" He yelled, gesturing for Nodoka to go and get the item. After Ranma had dumped the water over his head, he noticed that the change came as quickly as always now. She didn't know why it had been so slow the first time, but shrugged it off. She was going to beat the crap out of her father, as usual, and even if she had to do it in girl form in order to prove a point, it was going to be fun. "Ready old man?" Ranma asked, looking at the fat martial artist.

"Ready." Genma said, taking a stance.

From a window above the two, Ranko watched the confrontation. She had seen her older brother take their father down effortlessly before, and she wondered if he could really do the same thing in a form that, except for it's older age, was exactly like her.

The two figures charged together and the red one began to blur as she picked up speed. She began to launch many quick and weak blows, as her fighting style usually dictated for her female form, and started pummelling Genma. It was probably a good thing that she hadn't done this as a guy, since his greater strength probably would have knocked the old man out a lot faster, as his defences were non-existent and she didn't need her speed advantage. For some reason, Genma seemed pathetically easy to fight against. It was almost like he hadn't trained at all in the last decade. He was pathetic! Deciding to end the fight quickly now that she had assessed her father's skill, Ranma jumped into the air and came down with a knee drop to the older man's face. With a rather loud crash, Genma hit the ground, not moving.

"That was easy." Ranma muttered, flicking her pigtail behind her ear and walking to the house for some hot water. Nodoka just gaped at the crumpled body of her husband, who although he hadn't trained for a while was a pretty good martial artist. For some reason, Genma held up a sign that said, "Oh the pain." Before passing out.

Nodoka didn't know what had happened to her son, but she kind of liked it. True, that strange transformation curse that he had wasn't very manly, but he was very strong. Besides, with the luck her son had been having with women of late, she was beginning to question her own beleafs about manliness. Evidently, most women did NOT think that being peeped on was exciting.(1)

After returning to his preferred state of maleness, Ranma walked up the stairs to find a young red haired girl waiting for him. Having Ranko around was going to take a bit of getting used to, because every time he saw her he had flashbacks of that evil spirit that had possessed his girl form that one time. "Hey Ranko. What do ya want?" Ranma asked, stopping on the stairs as the body in front of him made it rather difficult to proceed.

"Train me." The girl said, seriously.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking stupidly.

"Please?" The girl said, giving her elder brother the puppy dog eyes. This technique even worked when he was being an incredible jerk, so surely it would work now.

Ranma, through his own use of the technique, had grown a slight immunity to the puppy dog look. Problem, a twelve year old girl looking at you like that and quivering her lip would cause Herb of the musk to cave in and let her ride around on his back while he flew around. Sighing in defeat, Ranma threw up his hands. "Why're ya askin me? Why not ask pop."

"Because he won't train me since I'm a girl." Ranko shot back, instantly.

Ranma blinked. He supposed that she had a point there. Genma probably would give that as a reason, and Nodoka didn't think martial arts was all that ladylike herself. "All right. But I'm really tired today. Can we do this some other time?" Ranma said, yawning.

"All right!" Ranko said, standing up from the step she was sitting on and giving Ranma a hug. As Ranko ran off to her bedroom, Ranma couldn't help but grow a bit of a smile. Having a little sister could be really nice. Walking into his room, he proceeded to tuck away some of the more.. distracting posters and magazines. He didn't want everyone to think he was a pervert, after all. Too bad that that was already a lost cause.

As he sprawled out on the bed, much more comfortable than a futon on someone else's floor, he stared up at the ceiling of his room. He was confused. Just a few ours ago he had been in a life or death battle with Saffron, trying to save Akane. Now, Akane was apparently safe at the Dojo, he had grown a little sister and Dr. Tofu was apparently angry at him for some reason. Had the Saffron incident really just been some sort of conjured memory caused by a head injury? He HAD had that kind of problem once before, and it had seemed so real then too. Then Ranma remembered that he still had his curse, and no one seemed to have an explanation for it. Not to mention that his martial arts skills were, if not quite as good as they normally were, still very good. Sighing in frustrated confusion, Ranma closed his eyes and went to sleep.

A room away, Ranko was staring up at her ceiling. Her brother was acting so… different. He hadn't called her a twerp once since he had woken up from his little fainting spell, and he seemed to be so much better at the arts. She had also seen him burning one of his pin up posters, but she didn't know what that really meant. Was he not a peeping tom anymore, or did he just not like that poster for some reason. Of course, there was that curse of his, too. It was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. Was that what she was going to look like when she got older? The only bad thing she could see about it was that she would be so short. Ranma's girl side was only a bit taller than she was now. Being that short for the rest of her life would kind of suck. She consoled herself that Ranma, who had apparently grown skill in the martial arts from nowhere, was going to teach her some moves. She had tried to copy the moves she had seen from Akane Tendo and the martial artists off of TV, but she knew that she was doing some things wrong. With a happy grin at the thoughts of what she was going to learn, Ranko went to sleep.

In the parents' room, Nodoka was fast asleep but Genma was not. His son had, thanks to him of course, become a master of the anything goes school. He could tell Soun in the morning, and Soun could pick one of his daughters for the boy to be engaged to. The schools would be joined! With a maniacal smile, Genma fell asleep, dreaming of his retirement.

Notes.

(1) I figure that Nodoka's an incurable exhibitionist and is pretty well incapable of being jealous. How ELSE would she be all right with "Manly" behaviour, when it makes all other women rather sick to their stomachs.

VOTE! Tendo Daughter engaged to Ranma.

Akane.

Nabiki.

Kasumi.

This vote will be on until I release chapter two. This is not exactly a relationship pole, but it will disqualify the two tendos that don't get a winning vote.


	3. The life and perversions of Ranma Sa

Note: The votes are in, and it's very close between Kasumi and Nabiki. Well, I'm pretty sure that Kasumi has one or two more votes than nabs, I've got a better plot line set out for the middle Tendo then the eldest, so the author's vote, 5Reader votes, is for Nabs. I can't believe that there was such a small turn out for the tomboy of the family, but then again it makes it so I don't have to put in NEARLY as much angst, which is good in my opinion. Angst is bad… at least when I write it.

Chapter 2. The life and perversions of Ranma Saotome.

Ranma rolled over in his bed, snuggling into the warm covers. This was a definite improvement from his normal sleeping arrangements in the Tendo guest room. Feeling a tugging sensation on one of his arms, he batted it away. "Ge Away, Oyaji. Lemme sleep!" He said, before tucking his head under the blankets with the rest of him.

Feeling a small weight landing on his side, Ranma looked out of his blankets to see a grinning girl looking down at him. "I ain't an old man, Ranma!" She said, trying to act indignant. "Mom says that you gotta hurry up or you'll be late for school."

Ranma bore a look of non-recognition for a moment before the memories of the day before came back to him. "Oh, Right. Get offa me, would ya Ranko?" He asked, as he tried to get up. The girl obliged, running out of his room and down the hall. Ranma picked up his school bag from next to the bed where it had been dropped the day before, apparently without him noticing, and he realized that it was rather light. Looking into it, he saw some school work, along with something else. He grimaced in disgust as he pulled out a copy of a sailor moon doujinshi. "Man, what is all of this crap doin in my room?" He muttered, chucking the rather strange manga material into his waist basket with a large number of it's fellows. Pulling open a dresser drawer, Ranma cursed as he saw a whole bunch of Furinkan boys uniforms, all of which were slightly ill fitting on his normal form, not to mention his cursed one. Digging around a little he found what looked like a dress shirt and pair of casual pants in the bottom of the drawer that fit him, mostly. It wasn't as good as his Chinese clothes, but it would have to do.

About five minutes later, Ranma walked down to the kitchen table and plopped down at it. Seeing a large pile of pancakes in the middle of the table, he scooped a bunch of them out and piled them on his plate. Once he had put on a satisfactory amount of butter and syrup, he began to munch. He didn't eat much American food, but it was pretty good for a change. He smiled as he noticed that Genma was eyeing his plate covetously, but hadn't attacked it yet.

After totaling a rather large stack of pancakes, Ranma slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed for the door.

"Ranma, where are you going?" Nodoka asked, looking after him.

"Heading to school. Why?" Ranma asked, looking back to his family. "I do gotta go, right?" He asked, a bit of hope entering his voice that he could skip it.

"Yes, but you have to take your sister with you." Nodoka said, looking disapprovingly at her son as if she had said this many times before. To the Saotome mother's surprise, Ranma got an expression of understanding, rather than his usual sullen and annoyed grumbling.

"Oh, Okay. You ready to go, Ranko?" Ranma asked, looking to the young girl who was just finishing tying her shoes. Ranko nodded enthusiastically before the two headed out.

As Ranma and Ranko walked to school, The elder Saotome hopped up to a fence top, strolling along it with his arms behind his head. "What are you doing?" Ranko asked, looking up quizzically at her brother.

"Balance practice. It's an important part of Anything goes." Ranma said, in a voice that sounded like a dojo Sensei. Then, he got a crooked grin on his face. "Not to mention that it's fun."

"Can I try?" Ranko said, eagerly looking up at the rail that her older brother was walking on.

Ranma looked surprised. Akane, or anyone else for that matter, had never asked something like that. He was really beginning to like this girl. Smiling and hunkering down on the fence, Ranma stretched out his arms and the little girl grabbed them, being hoisted up onto the top of the chain link barrier. Ranma held her shoulders, as she began to slowly walk her way along the fence, wavering a little bit but quickly being caught by her brother. "There ya go. Don't push it." Ranma advised, slowly and carefully releasing his grip on the short redhead. She began to walk, and then increase speed.

"I'm doin it!" Ranko called, as she got to a normal walking pace.

"you do know that everyone can see up your school dress like that." Ranma commented, casually.

Ranko let off an indignant and embarrassed squeak, as she looked down to see her pleated school skirt. Unfortunately, she hadn't really gotten the hang of rapid movement and balancing yet, and toppled to the side. Moving rapidly, Ranma moved to catch the overbalancing girl, but cursed as he saw that the fence was currently part of a bridge that was going over a canal. With a splash, Ranko found herself being held in the arms of a teenaged redhead, who was standing knee deep in the water of the canal.

"Serves you right!" Ranko said, sticking her tongue out at her elder sister. "You shouldn't have embarrassed me like that!" After saying this, she gave a playful bop to the top of Ranma's head.

All Ranma did was laugh. "The look on your face was so good, though." She said, smirking at Ranko. Then she realized what she was doing. She had been fooling around with the younger girl like they really were siblings. He had only been around here, wherever here was, for half a day and she seemed reasonably comfortable with it. She guessed that it must have been because she was just grateful for getting out of the situation with saffron, but still found it strange.

"Ranma, you okay?" Ranko asked, snapping her fingers in front of the taller redhead's face from where she was still being held in her arms.

"uh? I'm fine. Let's get you to school." Ranma said, hopping from the canal and back to the street above with minimal effort. Ranko just hung on and enjoyed the ride.

After dropping Ranko off at her school, Ranma realized that she had a problem. That being that she was a girl. "Oh well." She muttered, while sprinting towards Furinkan. She would have to get some hot water at the bathrooms there.

As Ranma approached the front gates of Furinkan high, she saw the forms of many boys lining up in front of the front entrance. 'Oh no. Not them!' She thought, as she ran past. Luckily, none of the horde O' Hentai seemed to notice the new girl, as they were focused on Akane.

From her perch at a second story window, Nabiki wasn't nearly as unobservant as the hentai horde. Curiously, she watched as the short redhead made her way into the school. She would have to get some info about her later. Taking her eyes from the girl's path, Nabiki wondered where Saotome's stooges were. They were usually around somewhere, but the ringleader seemed to be missing. Hiroshi and Daisuke were around, but they were mostly followers, and without their leader they just hung around listlessly. She would have to find out where Ranma Saotome was, as well.

HR

That morning passed pretty smoothly for Ranma. True, he got sent out to the hall for sleeping once, but that was rather standard procedure. Hiroshi and Daisuke kept giving him some strange looks as well, but he didn't have a clue why.

At lunch, Ranma was sitting under a tree when his two friends showed up. "Hey, Ranma." Hiroshi said, settling next to the pigtailed martial artist, who was eating a bento packed by his mother.

"Hi Hiro, Dai." Ranma said, looking up at the two friends with a smile.

"You okay man? Daisuke asked, noticing how Ranma was wolfing down his food. "You didn't call last night like you said you would."

Ranma looked confused. "Um… Call? I was supposed ta call you guys?" He asked, blinking.

"Yeh. For the CS game, remember?" Hiroshi said, grinning. "We were gunna play on some of those Gaijin servers and show them what Japanese can do!"

"CS?" Ranma asked, even more confused.

"Counter strike. You know, the computer game." Daisuke said, snapping his fingers in front of Ranma's face like he was trying to bring him back from the dead. "You gotta remember CS. I know your mom said that you weren't feeling well when we called last night but this is serious."

"Look guys. I ain't feeling too well today." Ranma said, trying to get out of this situation about which he knew nothing. "I gotta go talk to Nabiki about something."

"YOU are going to go and talk to Nabiki?" Hiroshi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Good luck. Oh, is the raid still on for the gym class this afternoon?"

To this, Ranma just looked confused while Daisuke elbowed Hiroshi hard. "Shut up." He growled, seeing that two of the girls from their class, Yuka and Sayuri were looking at them with disgusted looks.

On the other side of the school yard, Nabiki narrowed her eyes as she saw Ranma Saotome walking towards her. 'He's coming to me. Interesting.' She thought, nibbling on a piece of excellently prepared sushi from her older sister. "So Saotome, what can I do for you?" Nabiki asked, as Ranma walked up.

"Look Nabiki. I got a REALLY strange request for ya, and I don't want ya to question what I'm gunna ask, all right?" Ranma asked, having thought of this idea during his time holding buckets. He had realized that, if he didn't remember something as important as a little sister, there could be other important things he didn't know that he needed to find out. Nabiki was the best way to get that information.

Nabiki raised her eyebrow. "Well, I suppose that can be arranged, IF it isn't harmful to my family." She added, chips of ice floating in her tone.

"All right. I want ya to give me all the info you got on…" Ranma looked embarrassed as he prepared to say the next word. "Myself." After saying this, he pulled out about five thousand yen and handed it to the girl. He had found the rather large, for him, amount of money hidden in a drawer in his room, and had pocketed it just in case.

"Interesting." Nabiki muttered, fingering through the stack of bills. "Isn't this the money that you like to buy those comics of yours with?" She asked, disgusted.

To Nabiki's surprise, Ranma mirrored her slightly disgusted look. "Just give me the info I want, all right?" He asked, annoyed.

"All right, all right. Why so anxious about a pointless request." Nabiki grumbled, before starting to recite her file on Ranma. "Age, 17. Grade level is second year. Group of friends, Hiroshi Neomoto and Daisuke Aida. Favourite activity, computer games and spying on the girls gym classes. Known enemies, Akane Tendo, Tofu Onno and Hikaru Gosunkugi. Also, I've heard that there's a new boyfriend of Akane's that's out for your blood. People that just don't like you include most of the student body, most notably Ukyo Kuonji. Anything else?"

Ranma blinked. "Okay… so what did I do to Ukyo?" He asked.

Nabiki laughed. "Well, THAT one was more your father's fault then yours. You've just got a pretty good case of guilt by association, plus the fact that she doesn't exactly enjoy being peeped on."

"And the doc?" Ranma asked, having been curious about what Dr. Tofu was mad about for the entire time since he had first noticed it.

Nabiki's face became VERY cold at this question. "Saotome, what game are you trying to play here?" She asked, glaring at him. "You had better give me a good answer."

Ranma sighed. He knew that Nabiki would probably be selling this information right after he told it to her, but he really needed this information. What he had already heard was disturbing enough that he needed to know all of it in order to keep himself from being attacked by everyone in the area for saying the wrong thing.

Opening his mouth slowly, Ranma began to speak. "Well, Yesterday I apparently passed out while walking Ranko home from school."

"apparently?" Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you know if you passed out?"

"No. That's the problem." Ranma explained, frustrated that Nabiki would interrupt. "I can't remember anything. Well, that's not true. I remember my whole life, but what I remember is real different from what anyone else does. I don't even have any recollection of having a sister until yesterday, and I don't got ANY idea why the doc's so pissed at me."

"That's quite a story." Nabiki said, stretching slightly. "How much of it's true?"

"All of it." Ranma snapped. "You know I can't lie to save my life." He seemed embarrassed at admitting this one.

Nabiki blinked. She was VERY good at reading people. Usually, Ranma Saotome was very skilled at deception. He wasn't, however, good enough to fool her. She made her living off of it, after all. What he had just said was said in complete honestly. He honestly thought that he couldn't lie to save his life, and was quite open about it. Sighing, Nabiki decided to humour him. After all, this information would have a little bit of value for the people who wanted to keep track of the school's resident pervert. Well, that honour really belonged to Tatwaki Kuno, so she supposed that Ranma was the school's resident secondary pervert.

Ranma began to fidget s Nabiki thought, before he finally said something. "You gunna tell me or not?" He asked, annoyed.

"All right, all right." Nabiki said, waving her hand in a calming motion. "Fine. The doctor is angry at you because of what you did to my eldest sister." Nabiki said, her voice gaining an edge of ice near the end.

"What I did to…" Ranma asked, in confusion.

Nabiki shrugged. Apparently Ranma really HADN'T been exaggerating, and he couldn't remember anything. "Well, our fathers got the insane idea to join our schools of martial arts about two years ago. This was really strange since your side of the school had no trained Heir and our side only had Akane, who daddy hadn't trained ever since mother died. Well, first they tried engaging you to Akane. That went south fast when she attacked you for peeping on her and almost killed you. I had told the old fools that I didn't want ANYTHING to do with you, so they decided to pass you off to Kasumi. Of course, with your.. rather strange view of girls and Kasumi's excepting of pretty much anything…" Nabiki trailed off.

"I… I didn't?" Ranma said, looking pale. "Not to… Kasumi?" He asked, an anger flaring in his eyes that he couldn't decide where to direct.

Nabiki was surprised by Ranma's reaction. Surprise, she could expect. Maybe a bit of remorse, but anger? "No. You didn't. Dr. Tofu broke you two up, and almost ripped you apart. That's when he and Kasumi started going together. They've been dating ever since. It was a good thing for my sister and Tofu that you did that, but he'll probably never forgive you."

"I see." Ranma said, standing from his kneeling position near Nabiki and wandering off into the school yard. He wandered around, stunned. He couldn't believe that he would do something like that. It was KASUMI, for Kami's sake. The worst thing she had ever done while possessed by a DEMON was sow "Cross dresser" into the back of his shirt, and she had apologized profusely for days after that when the oni was exorcised.

When the bell rang to go back into class, Ranma's head was still spinning. He kind of wanted to pummel anyone who would think to do something like that to sweet, kind Kasumi, but beating himself up was NOT on his fun things to do list. Vowing that if he ever met the version of him that had done that to Kasumi he would beat it into a bloody smear, Ranma walked into the school building.

HR

In the pits of the Nifelheme of another dimension, the soul of Ranma Saotome let off a loud sneeze. "Get back to work, dog!" A devil yelled, poking the boy with a pitch fork. "Yes, sir." Ranma squeaked, franticly pushing at the large boulder that he was supposed to push up a hill.

END.

Notes.

No Kasumi did NOT actually get touched. I shall NOT allow the primary tenant of Ranma ficdom to be destroyed by my careless action. "THOU SHALT NOT HARM KASUMI TENDO" is a commandment that I always shall follow. The alt-Ranma just came VERY close to violating the prime directive. non-Kasumi interference.


	4. Contemplation and morons

Chapter 3. Contemplation and morons.

Nabiki looked after Ranma as he staggered off, looking rather punch drunk. "I wonder what that was about?" She thought, losing sight of the pigtailed boy. His story was rather… odd, and he had forked over all of the money he had in order to get information on himself. Also, he seemed to look a bit different. Slimmer, but more well muscled. Nabiki's eyes narrowed. She was going to get to the bottom of what was going on here.

About two hours later, after the final school bell rang, Ranma was heading out of the front gates when he heard a voice. "Halt Comrade!" Came a shout from Tatwaki Kuno, captain of the school's Kendo club.

"Huh? Kuno, wadda you want?" Ranma asked, glairing at the Kendoist.

"Is that any way to treat a comrade in arms My friend?" Kuno asked, reaching for his bokken.

"Comrade in arms? Me? I'd rather feed myself to your sister's huge alligator." Ranma snorted, wondering what Kuno was talking about.

"What's this? My friend and ally in the fight for Akane Tendo has been possessed by some sort of foul monster? I shall exorcise you!" Kuno said, charging at Ranma.

From nearby, Hiroshi and Daisuke looked on, feeling sorry for their friend. They didn't know why Ranma was acting so strangely, but they did know that with what he had just said, Kuno sempai was going to clean his clock.

"Does Saotome have a death wish?" Nabiki muttered, from her position next to the gates. Her younger sister, Akane, walked up next to her and looked at the two facing off.

"What's going on sis?" Akane asked, before she saw the scene. "Oh joy. It's the battle of the perverts." She said, venomously glaring at both Ranma and Kuno. "There's no point in watching this Nabiki. That Saotome jerk is just going to be pounded by Kuno again."

"I don't know sis." Nabiki said, as she watched the scene.

Ranma seemed to be completely relaxed, no defence showing at all. Nabiki had seen that stance before, though. Either Ranma had just happened to fall into exactly the same stance as Genma usually used in a fight, or he was more well trained than she gave him credit for. As Kuno charged at Ranma with a battle cry, Ranma dodged to the left of his first sword swing and slammed the blade with his hand. Kuno bore a rather comical look of surprise as he tilted sideways, the momentum imparted to the blade of his Bokken causing him to turn slightly. Coming around with a foot, Ranma belted Kuno in the back as he turned, sending him rocketing into the school's side wall.

"You gunna get up, Kuno?" Ranma asked, looking at the crumpled form of the Kendoist. To his surprise, the usually resilient boy didn't even twitch. Shrugging it off, Ranma ran out of the school yard. He was probably late to pick up Ranko. As Ranma left, he was unaware of the number of gaping mouths he had left behind.

"He took out Kuno as fast as I usually do." Akane stammered, looking at the body of the prone upperclassman. There was something strange going on here. She had fought, if you could call it fighting, Ranma before. There was no way he could have possibly improved this much in the time since she had last fought him. Next to Akane, Nabiki became even more determined to figure out what was wrong with the Saotome boy.

Deeper in the school yard, Hiroshi and Daisuke were gaping. "Hiro, did you just see what I saw?" Daisuke said, looking at one of his two best friends.

"Yeh Dai. I think I did." Hiroshi said, still staring in shock at where Ranma had fought Kuno. "Should we help Kuno to the nurses office?"

"No way!" Daisuke exclaimed, grinning widely. "We BOTH know Kuno deserved that. Even that horde of his was WAY over the line."

Hiroshi nodded, and the two left the yard, and the now twitching form of Kuno.

At the middle school, Ranko was leaning against a wall and impatiently awaiting her older brother. Her friends had all gone home about five minutes ago, and Ranma was late.

"Hey Ranko!" Came a voice from down the street. Ranko looked in that direction and had to restrain a giggle. There was Ranma, in Female form, running down the street towards her and soaked to the bone. Ranma's girl form would take a bit of getting used to, but the younger girl actually really liked this new addition to her brother, as well as his seeming new attitude. It was like having an older sister as well as an older brother.

"How did you get all wet, Ranma?" Ranko asked, Looking Ranma over.

"The old Ladle lady got me down by the school." Ranma explained, coming to a stop in front of her sister. "You wanna get home now?"

"Yeh, but you're late!" Ranko complained, pretending to be angry.

Ranma gave an exaggerated sigh. "And how do I make that up to you?" She asked, looking with a false look of apology on her face at the little girl.

'Well, it's worth a try.' Ranko thought, before grinning and saying "Iced cream!"

Ranma fished around in a pocket and found some money that she hadn't paid to Nabiki.

Five minutes later, the two girls were walking down the street, both with large iced cream cones. "I can't believe you did that." Ranko giggled, Remembering Ranma's blatant flirting with the guy at the iced cream shop.

"That, is an important part of the anything goes school. Get food from wherever you can, so long as you don't steel it." She had added the last part herself, as her father's version of that rule had no provision against theft.

Ranko nodded. It made perfect sense to her, after all.

HR

Nodoka Saotome hummed happily to herself as she cooked supper for her family. The strange events of the day before were forgotten, and she was lost in the rhythm of the house work. As she transferred a pot of soup from the burner to a cooling tray she heard the front door open, and Ranko's happy voice coming from the front hall.

"Mom, dad, we're home!" Ranko called out, as she and Ranma ditched their shoes in the front entrance. The iced cream was long since eaten, since Ranma didn't want her mother to find out she was feeding Ranko treats before dinner. Parents were pretty hard on people about that.

Nodoka had to do a double take as she saw two girls walk into the kitchen. "Oh, hot water." Ranma said, as she grabbed a kettle from the stove that Nodoka was intending to use for tea. Poring some of it's contents over her head, she returned to being male. This pretty much ensured that Nodoka remembered what had happened the day before, as her son had never had a gender changing curse before.

"Hey Ranko. If ya wanna try fence walking tomorrow, try wearing a pair of pants or something, okay?" Ranma said, remembering back to the rather embarrassing incident of this morning.

"Yeh, thanks Ranma." Ranko said, before Nodoka spoke up.

"Fence walking?" She asked, looking curiously at her daughter.

"Yeh. Ranma's teachin me how to do balance practice. It's really fun." Ranko said, with a happy smile. "The Baka forgot to remind me that I was wearing a skirt this morning, though." She said, shooting an annoyed look at her older brother.

"Sorry! I don't normally think about stuff like that." Ranma said, making warding gestures. "I'm goin to the Dojo to work out, all right?" He asked, looking at his mother.

"That's fine, Ranma…" Nodoka said, thoroughly confused now.

"Can I go too?" Ranko asked, excitedly.

"I'm gunna be doin some meditation today, Ranko. It's gunna b really boring." Ranma explained, looking uncertainly at his sister.

"Okay. I guess I'll pass." Ranko said, disappointed.

"How about we start your trainin tomorrow?" Ranma asked, smiling.

"Great!" Ranko said, before running off to her room to do whatever little girls do.

As Ranma left the room as well, Nodoka looked after the two of them. It was strange. Ranma was acting so different, yet Ranko seemed to really like him now. He was acting a lot less 'Manly' than usual, but was making his sister a lot more happy, and Even Nodoka kind of liked the way he acted. She wasn't sure if she wanted her son's old memories or whatever to come back, and she wondered if that made her a bad mother. Smelling smoke, Nodoka turned to something on the stove and realized that it was burning. Franticly, she tried to save the food.

In the Dojo, Ranma was finally alone to think for a while. Running through a few slow start up stretches to relax himself, he began thinking about the information that he had gotten that day. Apparently, he had been one hell of a pervert, maybe on the same level as Happosai. Then again, The ancient master had never thought to do anything to Kasumi. Everyone accept for his closest friends at school looked on him with at least a little disgust, and KUNO was one of those friends. What was the world coming to? The worst part was that he didn't remember any of this.

Stopping in his stretching, Ranma knelt on the floor in a meditation position. While he was kneeling, He reviewed what Dr. Tofu had said to him in the clinic. 'A head injury?' He wondered, remembering to another such incident in his past. Sure, the memories had all seemed as real as the ones he had in his head now, but they were all obviously derivative. If all he knew was the result of such an injury, then where had Saffron, Herb and the Amazons come from? Not to mention that he was still as strong as he always had been, and the rather concrete evidence of his curse. No, his memories weren't just some sort of concussion induced hallucination, but if that was so, how did he find himself here? Deciding to try an experiment, Ranma probed his body for a certain kind of Chi. He felt his confidence, a little depression, confusion, love and a few other emotions, but he couldn't find any of what he was looking for. Sure, there was a little lust Chi in his body, but not the perverted variety that Happosai or the like exuded. According to his memories, and his Chi, he was NOT the pervert that everyone thought him to be. Ranma was jolted out of his contemplation by the sound of Ranko calling his name.

"Anma! Ranma!" Ranko yelled, a few inches from her brother's face. Ranma's eyes shot open, and he fell back to the floor with his hands out in warding signs. Ranko giggled. "Mom says that dinner's ready." She said, offering her brother a hand up.

"Thanks, Ranko." Ranma said, before flipping to his feet.

As Ranma, Ranko and Nodoka knelt around the dining table that night, Ranma looked to the empty spot where his father should be. "Mom, where's pops?" He asked, pointing at the offending cushion.

"He's over at Soun's home. He said that he had something to discuss with him." Nodoka said, frowning disapprovingly.

Although Ranma knew that his father would go to Soun Tendo's home all the time for games of Shogi, if he were anything like the father he remembered at least, He still felt a sense of impending doom as his mother spoke.

HR

At the Tendo Dojo, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome were sitting around a Shogi table. "I don't like it Saotome. You know that this plan has failed twice before." Soun said, frowning. Even with his thick skull, he had realized that his daughters didn't really like Genma's son.

"Come on Tendo. Just one more time. Nabiki hasn't tried yet, and Ranma has made much progress in his training." Genma said, remembering how he had 'Just barely managed to knock his son out the day before.' "Besides. Have you forgotten what the master will do to us if we don't have an heir for him?"

Soun shivered. "No, old friend I have not but I don't think this is a very good idea. Nabiki is…"

Soun was cut off by Genma's next words. "Of Marriageable age and has not attempted to be with Ranma yet. I feel that we should at least try it once."

Soun sighed. "All right Saotome. ONE more try and then we drop this, all right?"

"All right Tendo. We'll tell them tomorrow." Genma said, looking relieved. Unknown to the two psudo-martial artists, There were two people watching them. The small and shrivelled one cackled as it thought that it's favourite student may be ready for it to train him while the middle Tendo daughter narrowed her eyes in a mixture of anger and thought. Being engaged to Ranma Saotome was a rather abhorrent concept, but it could let her get close enough to him to figure out what was going on. She had heard the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" before, but she wasn't a cat.

Late that night, Ranma was laying in his bed when he heard a knocking sound at his window. Trying to ignore it, he rolled over. Hearing the sound again, he grunted in annoyance and climbed out of bed, walking over to the window to see what was going on. Opening it, Ranma saw a black shadowy figure slink through and into his room.

"Wadda you want, Old freak?" Ranma asked, as he turned to look at the diminutive master of the anything goes school.

"Hmph." Happosai said, crossing his arms. "I just came to see if what Genma said was true." He said, fingering his pipe.

"Oh, what did the old man say?" Ranma asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Your father has told me that you have become proficient enough to defeat him. Actually, that's not what he said exactly but that is what I translated it as. Now, I want to know. Is this true?" Happosai said, looking at Ranma intently.

"Yeh, I can beat pop. Why?" Ranma asked, becoming suspicious.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Happosai said, hopping back out of Ranma's open window.

"Was that a challenge, old freak?" Ranma asked, sticking his head out after Happosai.

"But of course my boy!" Happosai cackled, from his position on the lawn of the Saotome house.

Ranma grunted in acknowledgement, before hopping from the window and down to the ground. Happosai raised an eyebrow. Ranma shouldn't be capable of that, at least he wasn't the last time he had seen him. Disregarding this fact, The grand Master of the anything goes school charged at the rather sleepy Saotome boy.

Genma and Nodoka awoke to the sounds of explosions and a battle about five minutes later. "What in the world is that?" Nodoka asked, as she got up from her side of the bed that she and her husband shared, walking to the window and looking out. "Oh dear Genma, you should probably see this." She said, worriedly.

Genma grumbled about missing sleep as he walked up next to his wife, and then his grumbling stopped as he saw the scene out the window. Ranma was leaping and spinning, dodging dozens of tiny firecrackers that Happosai tossed like machine gun bullets. As the Saotome parents watched, their son got tired of the dodging game.

"All right old freak, you've asked for it!" Ranma said, actually having quite a bit of fun. Happosai was the first real challenge he had had since he had woken up a day and a half ago, as Genma and Kuno were pushovers. Spinning to face the master of anything goes directly, Ranma cupped his hands and yelled "Moko Takabisha!" Firing a ball of blue energy that overwhelmed some of the fireworks that were flying towards him, and actually caught a surprised Happosai flat footed.

Happosai coughed out a puff of smoke as he looked at Ranma in surprise. "Well, Genma wasn't lying about you, my boy! That attack wasn't fuelled by perversion, either. Good work. I'll be happy to have you as my Heir!" After saying this, the old man bounded off, with one parting shot over his shoulder. "Train hard, boy!"

"What if I don't wanna be your Heir!" Ranma called, indignantly, shaking a fist at Happosai's retreating form. He thought he could hear the old man call "Too bad!" But wasn't sure. Noticing that he had woken up the entire house, Ranma quickly apologized before hopping up to his window again. Genma and Nodoka slowly Walked back to bed, while Ranko, who had also been watching from her own window, just muttered "Sugoi…" under her breath before returning to bed.

A few blocks away, Happosai was a very happy man. He didn't know how it had happened, but someone had actually become a good heir to his school. Although he loved his panty raids and silky darlings, he knew that his perversion flooded Chi was unhealthy for him, and even more so for anyone he taught the art to, so he hadn't wanted to train an Heir himself. Unfortunately, His two students had not done any better than he, one because he was afraid to train his children and the other because the one child that he trained had ended up as much of a pervert as Happosai himself. Now though, things were different. Happosai didn't know how he had done it, but Ranma had managed to learn the anything goes style and fuel his life force with something other than the perversion that infested Happosai's own aura. Confidence wasn't exactly a healthy power source either, but it was possible to jump from confidence fuelled chi to pure Ki use, where Happosai's own aura had forced him to become dependant on it.

With a happy glint in his eye, Happosai hopped off to the Tendo Dojo in order to rest. That fight had taken a lot out of him.


	5. School is no place for Horsing around!

Chapter 4. School is no place for Horsing around!

The next morning, Ranma lay in his bed, unmoving. The battle with the master of anything goes martial arts the night before had really taken a lot out of him, and he was trying to regain his energy. Unfortunately for the pigtailed boy, there was someone who was bound and determined to wake him up.

After calling his name several times, shaking his shoulder AND jumping on him, Ranko was getting low on ideas to wake her elder brother. Then, a sure-fire strategy came to her. Walking to the bathroom, the little girl filled a glass with cold liquid and came back to her brother's bedroom, throwing it over the sleeper.

"Ack! What'd ya do that for?" Ranma yelled indignantly, as she jumped out of bed.

"To wake you up." Ranko said, with a look on her face that said "I'm too cute to be mad at."

Sighing, Ranma took a feigned swing at her little sister before getting out of bed. "Mom wants me down stairs?" She asked, walking over to her dresser and rummaging through it for another set of clothes. She managed to find a black T-shirt and pair of jeans, and put them on. "I gotta get some more clothes." She muttered, closing the drawer which was still mostly full of school clothes.

Walking down to the kitchen table, Ranma noticed her father sitting there, reading a paper like she usually saw Mr. Tendo doing. "Hey pop." She said, sitting down next to him.

Genma lowered his paper, blinked slowly at the red haired girl and then recognition came to him. "Boy? Why are you in that weak female form?"

From the stove, Ranma could hear a sound similar to grinding teeth. Looking over, she saw Nodoka trying to look cheerful as she stirred a pot of soup. Smashing a fist into the top of her father's head, she said, "Ranko decided to wake me up with a glass of cold water, old man." Then, she smirked evilly. "Besides, don't you remember me beatin the crap outta you two days ago, or do I have to do it again?"

Genma just disintegrated into incoherent angry muttering as he went back to reading his paper.

"Here you go Ranma." Ranko said, as she had filled a warm glass of water from the sink. Handing it to her older sister, she sat down next to her as she waited for food.

"Hey Mom. Can I get some money to pick up clothes tomorrow?" Ranma asked, after pouring the cup of water over his head.

"Why do you need new clothes, son?" Nodoka asked, Looking up from her breakfast preparation for a moment.

"Most of the stuff in my dresser don't fit me, and school uniforms are kinda hard to wair with my curse." Ranma explained.

"I suppose that will be all right. Don't spend too much. Genma has been using a rather large amount of the house's finances recently." Nodoka said, levelling a glare at the newspaper that her husband was hidden behind.

"Sure thing mom." Ranma said, as Nodoka set bowls of soup down for herself, Ranma, Genma and Ranko.

After they had eaten breakfast, Ranma and Ranko ran off to school and Nodoka closed the door behind them. "So Husband, what were you and Tendo san discussing last night?" She asked, curiously.

"We were talking about attempting to unite the schools again, No-Chan." Genma said, lowering his newspaper.

Nodoka frowned. "Genma, you know what happened last time. I don't want Ranma beaten by that Akane girl again."

"Relax. He won't be engaged to her. I was considering her older sister, Nabiki." Genma explained, taking a sip of a cup of coffee that Nodoka had brought him.

"But what of his recent… change?" Nodoka asked, worried. "I know that the Tendo agreement is a matter of family Honour and that we must do all that we can to fulfill it, but Ranma hasn't settled down from that yet."

"Don't worry Nodoka. He'll be fine. He's a strong boy after all, Now more than ever." Genma said, trying to look wise and comforting to his wife at the same time. The effect was actually pretty good, accept for the coffee stain on the front of the white Gi he wore, despite the fact that he hadn't trained in several years.

Nodoka sighed. "I hope so Husband." She said, walking out of the kitchen for the living room, to begin cleaning the house. Genma exploded into a large grin the second his wife had left the room. He had done it, he had convinced her. Then again, Nodoka wasn't really all that hard to convince in matters like this. All he had to do was bring out the family honour and she would agree, so long as the promise WAS actually dealing with the family. He remembered one incident where he tried to use the family honour card involving an engagement for Ranma of which she had known nothing, the Kuonji agreement to be exact, and she had sliced his Gi off with her Katana, never touching the skin. To this day, he didn't know how she had done that. She wasn't a terribly good sword fighter, after all.

HR

On their way to school, Ranma looked up at the fence top and over at his little sister. To his amusement, she was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt today. "You ready for the fence walking again?" Ranma asked, pointing at the medium that he usually used for transport to school, when he wasn't running late, that is.

The girl nodded eagerly, and Ranma jumped up to the fence top and helped her up. The two began walking down the fence again, as they had the day before, and Ranko gradually got better and better at it. True, sudden movements still made her wobble unstably, but she always managed to regain her balance with little help from her brother. As the two passed by a store with clocks in it's window, Ranma cursed.

"Oh crap. We're late!" He said, surprising the heck out of Ranko by grabbing her up in his arms and jumping off of the fence.

"What the heck are you doin!" Ranko demanded, as Ranma jumped up to a roof and began to run. After a few minutes of terrified flailing of her arms, Ranko began to calm down. Ranma's grip had never wavered around her, and although they were running insanely quickly over the tops of buildings, Ranma seemed perfectly steady on his feet.

As Ranma landed in front of Ranko's school and put her down, she turned around and yelled "Don't ever do that without warnin me again!"

Ranma scratched his neck sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Ranko. I'll remember ta worn ya next time."

The girl turned, pretending to be annoyed with her brother still even if that had been the most fun ride she had had in a good long while. Walking into the school yard, she grinned back to him in order to show that she was just playing around.

"Ranko, what in the world's going on with you?" One of her friends asked, as she walked up to the grinning redhead. "You seem really, really happy today and you've had to come to school with that jerk of a brother of yours for the last three days!"

Ranko just smirked slightly. "That…" She said, having watched far too much slayers recently, "is a secret."

As was warranted in this type of a situation, the friend, and some others who had gathered around to hear the discussion, face faulted. Ranko's happy smirk just grew bigger as she walked into the school. (1)

HR

At Furinkan high, Nabiki Tendo waited at the school gates for a pigtailed person to come along. To her surprise, she saw him walking confidently… on the school wall. "Hello Saotome, interesting method of transportation you have there." She said, dryly.

"I like it." Ranma responded, shrugging. "So what's up?"

"I just figured I'd give you a heads up on something." Nabiki said, shrugging. "Daddy and your father are planning something."

"Oh great. What is it this time?" Ranma asked, groaning. "They decided to engage me to one of ya or something? No, wait. They've apparently already tried that twice, right?" He asked, looking at Nabiki questioningly.

The middle Tendo smirked. "That's all I'm going to tell you, Saotome. Unless you have some yen, of course."

Ranma fished around in his pockets. 'Damn. Nothin.' He thought, before shaking his head.

"Well, I guess it'll be a surprise." Nabiki said, before walking into the school with a smirk on her lips. Ranma's response to her news had been informative. The resigned and dismayed look that he had gotten was far different than the rather strange smile that he had worn the last time she had told him something similar and he had guessed at an engagement. This was interesting. As she got to the door, Nabiki saw upperclassman Kuno walk out of the school with his Bokken. Apparently, he hadn't taken part in any hentai horde activity this morning. She wondered why, and stayed at the entrance to watch.

Kuno strode forward, stopping in front of Ranma and raising his sword. "Halt you foul demon!" He said, putting his sword in a defensive position, horizontal at chest level.

"Wadda you want, Kuno?" Ranma asked, looking annoyed.

"I demand you release the honourable Ranma Saotome so that he may continue his holy pursuit of the fair Akane!" Kuno said, pointing at Ranma.

Ranma nearly choked. Had KUNO just called him Honourable? "I can't release myself, bokken for brains." He said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Enough!" Kuno yelled, charging at Ranma. With lightning fast sword swings, Kuno tried to hit his elusive target, but Ranma was too fast. For a second, Kuno thought he felt something on his forehead, but dismissed it. After this strange sensation had come, Ranma lashed out with a foot and hit Kuno in the chest, sending him rocketing into a wall. The blue thunder of Furinkan twitched spastically, falling to the ground in a twitching mass of pain.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow as she walked over to Kuno, prepared to take him to the nurses office as she did every morning that he fought with Akane. As she rolled him over, she fought to restrain a giggle but it came out anyways. Written in slowly forming bruises on Kuno's forehead was the word "Reject." "Saotome, you certainly have a wicked sense of humour." Nabiki muttered, dragging Kuno by the legs to the nurse's office.

Later in the morning, after the nurse had used smelling salts to wake her most frequent patient, Kuno sat in front of Nabiki, tapping a finger against her desk. "Tell me Nabiki Tendo, what has happened to Saotome?" He asked.

"Five thousand yen, Kuno baby." Nabiki said, holding out a hand to accept the money.

"I despise you, Nabiki Tendo." Kuno muttered, before handing over the money.

"Glad to hear it Kuno baby." Nabiki smirked, fingering the bills. "Well…"

Five minutes later, Kuno had bolted up from his chair and charged out the door. "…All I said was that our parents were going to arrange an engagement." Nabiki muttered, wondering what had set the Kendoist off.

HR

"Never Ranma Saotome!" Ranma heard, as he, Hiroshi and Daisuke were holding buckets in the hall. As he felt a strange sense of Dei Ja Vu, He felt something pour over his body. It was cold water! Kuno had just hit her with a bucket of water, right in front of Hiroshi and Daisuke. Fortunately, no one else was there, but it was still really embarrassing.

"Uhh!" Kuno said, as he caught sight of Ranma, red pigtail dripping, glaring at him. I am sorry, dear lady. I have Mistaken thee for a foul demon that hast possessed a noble friend of mine and seakest to use him to break me and my love apart."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking stupidly. "How am I supposed ta break ya and your love apart?" She asked.

"Tis not you, but the foul demon which possesses Ranma Saotome. It wishes to wed my fair Akane Tendo."

"I do not!" Ranma yelled, her automatic denial instinct coming into play. Then, her eyes widened and she clamped a hand over her mouth.

Kuno looked horrified for a second as the gears in his head, rusty as they were, began to tick away. "Y… You mean that Thou art the demon that possesses Ranma Saotome? Tis such a tragedy that such a lovely form shouldst hide such an insidious being. I STRIKE!"

"Damn it Kuno!" Ranma swore, as she dodged the maddened Kendoist's sword swings. "I ain't no demon!" Kicking Kuno hard, Ranma sent him out a nearby window and turned back to Hiroshi and Daisuke, brushing her hands off. Luckily, the rest of the class had, through some miracle, not heard the sounds of combat outside their classroom and had stayed inside.

"R… Ranma, is that you man?" Hiroshi asked, gaping at the Redhead who, if he wasn't partially convinced was his best friend, he would have considered very hot.

Ranma sighed, Glaring at the place where Kuno once stood. "Yeh, it's me. I'm gunna go change back. I'll explain at lunch." She said, before walking off.

After Ranma had walked away, Daisuke looked at Hiroshi. "Do you think Kuno Sempai was right about Ranma being possessed?" He asked, worriedly.

"Well, he has been acting kind of strange lately." Hiroshi said, scratching his chin. "With what I just saw, I donno." Then reality, even as warped as it was, set in. "Are you kidding? It was KUNO who said it. If he was ever right, the world would end!"

The two boys paled and rushed to the window on the other side of the corridor from the classroom, looking for signs of the apocalypse. Everything looked perfectly normal, accept for the body of Kuno floating in the pool in the yard.

"What are you two doing?" Nabiki asked, as she walked up behind the two boys.

"Looking at Kuno." Daisuke said, quickly lying. Nabiki didn't bother to question him further, as she saw the floating form of her classmate in the pool.

"Who did that?" Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow. She hadn't heard Akane's outraged cry of "PERVERT!" So she assumed it had been someone else.

"It was Ranma, I think." Daisuke said, shaking his head in confusion.

"You think?" Nabiki asked, suspiciously. "Wouldn't you know if your best friend kicked Kuno out a window?"

"Well, he looked kinda different." Hiroshi temporized, trying to cover for Daisuke's slip up. Something told them that Ranma just may not want whatever had just happened to get out to the school in general, and so long as his friend wasn't possessed by a demon, he would stick by him. After all, that was what buddies did.

"Hey guys, why're ya lookin out the window?" Ranma asked, as he came up behind them.

Nabiki jumped and spun, surprised that the boy could sneak up behind her. She hadn't done martial arts in years, but she had kept in practice with the sneaking techniques, and detection of same, for her spy operations. No one who wasn't a well trained martial artist could sneak up behind her like that.

"Oh, yer lookin at Kuno." Ranma said, dismissively looking out the window. "The moron should survive. I didn't kick him too hard."

Nabiki walked away, mulling over the new information she had, as the three boys, who had finally served their water bucket penalties, walked into their classes.

HR

In China, more specifically in a range of mountains called the Bayankala range, two men wearing animal skins waited. "Lime? What do you think is taking Master Herb so long down at Jusenkyo?" One asked, looking curiously at the other.

The other, who was wearing a tiger pelt, shrugged. "I don't know mint. Maybe the monkey got away."

As the two guards to the prince of the musk pondered this, they heard the sounds of what sounded like a woman's screams followed by the distinctive explosions of their leader's powerful Chi attacks. Running towards Jusenkyo, The two animal warriors briefly saw a black haired woman running down the trail, screeching like a monkey. As she passed them, she dropped a large ladle and bucket. The two bodyguards to the lord of the musk blinked stupidly, being distracted by the bare body of the female. As they looked on in a state of semi shock, They saw their lord, rapped in a cloak, walk up the trail to meet them.

"Lord Herb, are you all right?" Mint said, using his superior speed to run to his master.

"I… I am fine." Herb said, in a voice that was just barely above a whisper. Something seemed slightly off about it, but the two men decided not to question their lord. "Lime, grab the Chiisuden and follow me."

The broad shouldered tiger man obliged, picking up the bucket and ladle and following his leader. Mint followed as well, wondering what was wrong with his leader. His scent seemed a bit off.

HR

That lunch hour at Furinkan high, Daisuke and Hiroshi sat across from Ranma, shocked. "So you turn into a girl when splashed with cold water?" Daisuke asked, to get the story straight.

"Yeh. I told ya that before." Ranma said, sighing. He hated telling people about his curse, especially after they had already found out once before.

Hiroshi got a wicked grin on his face and held up a bottle of water.

"Do it and die." Ranma growled, glaring at his friend.

With an "Eap" of surprise, Hiroshi lowered the bottle slowly. "C'mon man. If you turn into a cute girl you have to let us see!" He protested. "What kind of friend are you?"

Ranma gripped his head and shook it violently. He had had to deal with this the first time these two had found out, as well. "Look. If you had a female friend, would you expect her to show off her body to you?"

"Yes." Daisuke said, stupidly, before Hiroshi bopped him on the head.

"And that's precisely why you don't have a girlfriend." Hiroshi snickered, Getting a look of understanding. "All right Ranma. I get it… Not that I won't try anyways!" He cried, before throwing a bottle of water at Ranma.

With an annoyed frown, Ranma jumped out of the way of the water bottle, so that it emptied it's contents on the grass behind him. "You wanna die, Hiro?" He asked, cracking his knuckles and generating a blue battle aura.

Hiroshi eaped again, and backed down.

From across the field, Akane narrowed her eyes at Ranma. She wasn't very good at it, but she COULD see Chi and he was generating an aura so powerful that normal people could see it. "How did that pervert get so good?" She wondered, while her friends carried on conversations next to her.

END.

Notes.

(1) That scene was inspired by a mental image I had of Lina inverse doing xelos's hand thing and winking. Anyone wanna draw me a fanart pic of Ranko doing that? Please? Begs on his knees.

If you do, sned me an E-mail and I'll provide a more full description of Ranko for you.


	6. shattered bonds

Notes: There's an idea for a VERY strange Darkfic slithering around in the back of my mind. I didn't even know I had the CAPACITY to think of something this warped. SHIVER Well, It may end up forcing me to write it some day, but hopefully not today.

Also, this chapter's rather depressing.

Chapter 5. Shattered bonds.

The rest of that day of school passed relatively quickly for Ranma. Hiroshi and Daisuke had laid off of him a bit after lunch, and Kuno was in too much pain to cause trouble. As the final bell rang, Ranma left the classroom, noticing that Akane had been glaring at him for the whole afternoon. He had tried to avoid thinking about the youngest Tendo, as it seemed like she REALLY hated him here. True, it had looked like they hated each other before, but this somehow felt more… real. For some reason, this made Ranma feel depressed. After all, he had killed for her, hadn't he? Dismissing these depressing thoughts from his head, Ranma started towards Ranko's school.

As he approached the gates, Ranma saw Ranko waiting there, a group of girls hidden behind the wall behind her. He couldn't see them, but they were so obviously trying to sneak around that he could pick out their over excited battle auras. "Hey Ranko, what're your friends doin over there?" Ranma asked, pointing at the wall.

The younger sibling shrugged. "I donno." She said, looking at the wall. "You guys in there?" She asked, not having the Chi reading abilities of Ranma but having heard them giggle occasionally before he showed up. After she had said this, two heads, those of the friends that she always hung around with, poked from behind the wall, blushing.

"Hi Ranko." Said one, waving. "Erm… yeh." The other echoed, before running off.

"That was strange." Ranma muttered, before looking down at his little sister. "So, ready to go?" He asked, offering his hand.

Ranko nodded, taking it and walking off. As the two siblings walked off, two confused middle school girls looked after them.

HR

"So daddy, you want me to come with you to the Saotome place? Why?" Nabiki asked, from her position on the couch in the middle of the Tendo family living room, typing away on a calculator. Actually, she knew perfectly well why she was going but pushing her father's buttons was funny.

"Well.." Soun said, transparently trying to make up a lie. "Nodoka san asked me to get you to help with their finances. You're so good with ours, and all." He said, quickly.

Nabiki mentally snorted but outwardly just put down her calculator and nodded. She may as well let her father off the hook.

"I'm coming too!" Akane said, getting up from a chair near the television.

"Huh? Why sis?" Nabiki asked, looking with a raised eyebrow at Akane.

"That Pervert Ranma is up to something, I just know it." Akane said, remembering the many plans of the secondary pervert brigade that she and her friends had foiled in the past. It was true that Ranma and his friends, while pretending to be with Kuno so that they didn't get beaten up, weren't nearly as persistent or rude as the blue thunder, but a lesser pervert was still a pervert, and Akane had to protect her non-combatant sister.

Nabiki shrugged. "All right Akane. Let's go." She said, thinking that the addition of her little sister could make things interesting.

HR

At the Saotome home, Ranma and Ranko had just gotten home, and Genma was sitting at the kitchen table for some reason.

"Hey pop. You're home from the Tendo place early." Ranma joked, Remembering how late his father had come home the day before. Genma just grunted, sounding strangely like a member of the ursine species at the time.

"So Ranko, you ready to go and train like I promised yesterday?" Ranma asked, looking down at the girl.

Ranko nodded slowly, and the two walked out to the Dojo. The place was rather small, and it had a shelf that held several Katanas and Bokken. Ranma guessed that the only person who had used this place before he had started yesterday was his mother. "Okay Ranko. Try and fight me, so I know how skilled you are. Don't worry, I won't hit back for the first fight." Ranma said, falling into a defensive stance.

"Right." Ranko said, nodding. Charging forward, she threw a punch, her hand held in a slightly strange position. Ranma realized that she was trying to emulate a real martial artist's move, but had obviously only seen it from a distance. Deciding to give her a learning experience, Ranma held up a forearm to block rather than dodging the blow. The girl's strike was actually surprisingly strong for her size, but the fist bent at an odd angle as it wasn't held right and she let out a soft cry of pain. Pulling back, Ranko cradled her hand. "Ow, that hurt." She muttered, rubbing at the wrist.

Ranma reached out and took hold of his sister's wrist, hitting a few pressure points that Doc Tofu had taught him to dull pain. There was no actual damage, just a nerve that had been temporarily pinched by the awkward punch, so Ranma didn't bother to tell Ranko to rest the hand. "All right. That punch hurt you because you were holding your hand wrong. Try this…" Ranma said, starting to teach his sister. Unlike Akane, Ranko only had the barest notion of fighting ability. Enough to take down a bully maybe, but nowhere near martial artist levels.

About ten minutes later, Nodoka walked into the Dojo to see a rather unexpected sight. Her son was standing in one place while her daughter moved and threw punches, practicing against his guard.

"Good Job Ranko. I actually felt that one a bit!" Ranma said, as the girl put all of her strength behind one blow. Coming in for another one, The two stopped as Nodoka cleared her throat.

"What are you doing, children?" Nodoka asked, looking the two over.

"I promised to show Ranko some moves." Ranma explained, letting down his guarding stance.

Ranko lowered her fists at this point as well, smiling as she heaved for breath. "Yeh, and it's, fun!" She panted.

Nodoka narrowed her eyes. "You have been given permission to teach students?" She asked, looking at Ranma with slight disapproval.

"No, but Ranko really wants this, she's a family member and do ya honestly think pop would teach her?" Ranma asked, throwing up his hands. "Besides. I wouldn't wish pop's trainin methods on anyone!"

Nodoka blinked. She had to admit that her son had a few good points. Ranko WAS his sister, and part of the family. Genma WOULD never teach her. Then, the last part of his statement got through. "What do you mean you wouldn't wish any of your father's training methods on anyone?"

"Well, I certainly ain't gunna throw Ranko off a three story roof to teach her how ta fall right. I was thinkin more along the lines of a small tree, or a fence. Strapping raw stakes to her legs and getting her to outrun wolves would be a bad idea too, 'cuz when they catch ya it hurts like hell." Ranma said, offhandedly, not really realizing what his mother's reactions to this explanation would be.

"Th… Those are your father's training methods?" She asked, her knuckles turning white as she clenched them in the formal Kimono she was wearing. She had given up baring a sword everywhere several years ago, but the action was a force of habit.

"You Okay mom?" Ranma asked, noticing his mother's action.

"Yes, I'm fine Ranma. Continue with your training but ask me before you do anything dangerous, all right?" Nodoka asked, as she left the room. 'Thank goodness I never let Genma take Ranma on that ten year training trip… but wait, if Ranma knows of Genma's training methods then he was put through them anyways…" She thought, becoming slightly confused but still VERY determined that her husband was sleeping on the couch tonight.

Back in the Dojo, Ranko looked at Ranma and laughed. "Wow, those were some pretty strange training methods you thought up." She said, looking at Ranma. Her laughter died as she saw the confused look on her brother's face. "You mean you weren't joking?" She asked, nervously.

"Nope, I wasn't. Don't worry though, I won't do that to you." Ranma Reassured, before turning back to the centre of the room. "Wanna continue sparring?"

"Sure." Ranko said, as she turned back as well.

HR

Twenty minutes later, Nabiki, Akane and Soun walked up the front walk of the Saotome home and knocked on the door.

"I'll be there in a minute!" Came Nodoka's voice, from deep in the kitchen. A few seconds later, the older woman opened the door, wearing an apron over her Kimono. "Oh, Hello Tendo San, Akane Chan, Nabiki Chan." She said, narrowing her eyes when she said the middle girl's name. She knew that her son had been slightly forward with her, but she felt that beating him into the hospital was uncalled for.

"Hello Saotome san. May we come in?" Soun asked, bowing to the woman. Nodoka nodded, and the group walked into the Saotome home. As Nodoka lead Soun in to see Genma, Akane and Nabiki looked around the place. It was smaller than their house, but Nodoka kept it almost as clean as Kasumi's standards. Wandering around as they really didn't have anything else to do at the moment, the two Tendo sisters found the door to a Dojo, where they saw something that caused their eyes to widen in surprise.

In the middle of the Dojo floor was Ranma Saotome, Pervert, Game Otaku and all around Geek, training and sparring with his little sister. The girl was darting in with fast strikes and kicks, slightly clumsily executed but very fast, and Ranma was just standing and blocking, occasionally dodging by swaying to one side or another.

"All right Ranko. Time for dodging practice." Ranma said, cracking his knuckles. "I ain't gunna be hitin anywhere near my full strength, so it won't really hurt. Just try ta dodge the blows, okay?"

The girl nodded, and Ranma started striking out with slow, deliberate shots, causing his sister to dodge them. As he was increasing his speed, he heard someone clear their throat. Looking up, Ranma saw Akane and Nabiki standing in the doorway. "What are you two doin here?" Ranma asked, looking confused as he stopped his assault and Ranko stopped dodging.

Nabiki shrugged. "Daddy said that I was here to help Mrs. Saotome with her taxes, but he was lying. I have no idea why I'm here, and Akane is along to "Protect me.""

"What are you doing fighting with your poor little sister?" Akane asked, cracking her knuckles. You see, she hadn't actually had a good person to really spar against for years, and her martial advancements came from the brawls with the Hentai horde. Because of this, she wasn't terribly good at determining when someone was having a sparring session and when they were actually fighting, and she didn't really realize that Ranma was holding back significantly. "You should be ashamed of yourself!" She said, stomping over and glaring at Ranma.

"Whadda ya mean, you tomboy?" Ranma asked, his automatic reaction to Akane kicking in as soon as she yelled at him. "All I was doin was sparrin with her, and she asked me!"

"Tomboy, eh?" Akane said, her hand twitching for any blunt instrument. Ever since she had been engaged to Ranma, he had been calling her an "Uncute Tomboy" and it drove her up the WALL! Finding no blunt instrument of pain, she punched forward.. Only to have Ranma, who was still in sparring mode from his bout with Ranko, raise an arm and block it. Akane gaped as her fist stopped on Ranma's arm. He should NOT have enough power to block that punch. Kuno couldn't even do that! Then again, she had forgotten that Ranma had beaten the crap out of Kuno two days in a row.

"You done, Akane?" Ranma asked, narrowing his eyes. Normally, When Akane hit him, he could see at least SOME justification for it. This time, she had just lashed out because he was training his sister in the art.

Akane growled, dropping her fist to her side, as Nabiki and Ranko watched, Nabiki interestedly and Ranko slightly frightened. As the tension in the room rose, it was broken by Genma and Soun, who walked in smiling happily.

"Ranma, Ranko, Nabiki, Akane. We have an announcement to make to you!" Soun said, happily.

Ranma had a sinking feeling as he heard this, Glancing around for an escape rout.

"Really daddy? What could that be?" Nabiki asked, playing her part.

"Nabiki and Ranma are now engaged in order to preserve the family honour!" Genma said, loudly.

Instantly, Ranma had moved to Genma and grabbed him by the collar. Everyone was rather stunned by the speed at which Ranma had moved. "What old man? He growled, holding his father up by the front of the Gi.

Genma couldn't help but feel a little intimidated, but he continued anyways. "You heard me, boy! You and Nabiki are to be wed."

"Oh happy day!" Soun said, holding a set of victory fans and dancing around.

Akane began to generate a red battle aura, as she yelled "I won't have that… Pervert as part of my family!" Practically spitting the word pervert.

Ranma reacted as if he had been slapped. For some reason, Akane's words hurt him on a level that he refused to acknowledge the existence of. The pure loathing in her voice was audible to anyone. Ranma had NEVER heard Akane sound like that before, no matter how angry she got.

Nabiki stayed cool, but noticed the look on Ranma's face as Akane yelled. "Daddy, are you sure this is a good idea?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, we have tried this before."

"No, Akane and Kasumi have tried it before. You have not, and we hope that it works out better this time." Soun explained, ignoring the incandescent beacon of his youngest daughter behind him.

Finally coming out of her Rage, Akane began to think clearly. She had to protect her middle sister from the Pervert, Ranma. He may not have done anything in the past few days, but he had done a LOT before, and he had almost done something horrible to her eldest sister. He seemed to have become stronger in the art as well, and that couldn't be a good thing. "Ranma, I challenge you!" Akane said, loudly.

Everyone, including the still stunned Ranma, turned towards Akane. "What did you say, Akane?" Genma asked, worried.

"I challenge Ranma Saotome of the anything goes school on his Honour. If he is truly a practitioner of the school, he must accept. If he loses to me, he is not worthy of uniting the schools." Akane said, remembering her father's old teachings that Anything goes martial artists had to accept any challenge.

The old men sputtered for a moment, before Ranma responded. "I… accept." He said, slowly. He didn't want to fight Akane, but his honour as a martial artist was at stake and no matter what had just happened, he had to defend it. It was all he really had, aside from Maybe Ranko. He had once, deep in his mind, also thought he had Akane but the way she looked at him and spoke to him today told him that he didn't have her anymore.

"Ranma, you can't!" Soun protested, having never seen Ranma's new fighting ability and thinking that his own daughter was going to shatter his beloved dream of uniting the schools.

"yes, I can Mr. Tendo." Ranma said, flatly, as he walked to the middle of the Dojo.

As the only one with a semi-clear head, Nabiki walked in between Ranma, who seemed to be the next thing to dead And Akane, who was letting off a large and angry battle aura. "This fight will continue until one side submits or is knocked out. Fatalities or serious injuries are prohibited. Begin!" She yelled, dropping her arm and backing away from the two.

With a battle cry, Akane charged forward and swung a fist out towards Ranma, the end of the arm and hand enveloped in a red battle aura. With a loud thunk, it hit the pigtailed martial artist and knocked him back.

'I gotta fight or I'll lose!' Ranma's mind screamed, as Akane pushed him back with the power of her blow. 'It's… Akane.' Another part protested, feebly. 'She hates you, you moron! FIGHT HER BACK!' The first part screamed, and Ranma countered Akane's opening punch with a rapid flurry of light punches of his own.

The Tendo Heir fell back, rubbing at her shoulder where one of Ranma's punches had connected. "Why you…" She muttered, charging in again, doing as her fighting style dictated and battering at her opponent until he fell.

On the sidelines, Ranko was looking at her brother with worry in her eyes. He seemed not to have any spirit in his movements, as if he couldn't find the will to fight. It was like every part of him was protesting against fighting the girl before him, despite her opening challenge.

Soun and Genma were worried as well. If Ranma lost this match, Their dreams of uniting the schools would be shattered forever. Someone who wasn't worthy could never do it, and if Ranma lost the match he would be considered unworthy.

Nabiki watched with a cold and calculating eye, but behind it she could feel a slight pang of concern for Ranma. Over the last couple of days that she had watched the boy, she had begun to like him and now her sister was beating the crap out of him.

'Man, This pervert's really tough.' Akane thought, as she struck at Ranma, the blows he had landed at the beginning of the fight now a distant memory. She could feel his defences weakening though, and knew that she was breaking through them.

Ranma was having a mental war. One side of his mind screamed that he was fighting Akane, and that he couldn't hurt her. The other side was replying that she evidently hated him and he must win, if only to prove himself. What decided the two was a cry that Akane made as she came in for the attack that could have destroyed his guard. "Die, Pervert!" She yelled, jumping up and coming down with a kick to Ranma's chest… that never hit. As Akane passed through the empty air that Ranma had once occupied, she felt many impacts along her back and shoulders. They weren't punches, but finger strikes. Each one landed on a nerve cluster, and the girl found herself unable to move. With a single finger poke to the side of Akane's head, Ranma sent her over on her side, laying still.

"She'll be able to move again in a few minutes. I win the match." Ranma said, before walking out of the Dojo. Everyone inside stared at the slumped form of Akane, and then at where Ranma had left. As she saw Nodoka, who had come in during the fight, and her father take care of Akane, Nabiki ran out of the Dojo to find Ranma. Seeing a form on the roof, she wondered how he had gotten there before running into the main house and up the stairs to the second floor. Going through Ranko's window, which had a small ledge outside of it, Nabiki climbed to the roof of the Saotome house to see Ranma huddled on the very peak, with his shoulders shaking.

"Saotome?" Nabiki asked, walking up to the pigtailed boy.

"Wadda you want Nabiki? Gunna blackmail me for all I got since I defeated yer little sister?" Ranma asked, bitterly.

"Nope." Nabiki said, sitting down next to Ranma. "She offered the challenge. It wasn't your fault you were better. Man, I made some major money in the betting pools at school, though."

"Heh, figured you would." Ranma said, with a small laugh.

"So, what got you so upset about hitting Akane?" Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow. "Please don't tell me you subscribe to that "Guys don't hit girls" bull."

"Nah. I used to, until I met some real tough girls a while back. I didn't hit Akane 'cuz I just really didn't wanna hit her. I… well, we were engaged."

"Yeh, I know that. She ended up beating the crap out of you." Nabiki said, with a small smirk.

"No. That ain't what I mean. Remember how I said I remember things different from everyone else?" Seeing Nabiki's nod, Ranma continued. "Well, the way I remember it Me 'n Akane were engaged, and I didn't get the crap beaten outta me. We fought all the time, but I think we kinda liked each other. Right before I ended up here, I ended up killin someone for her. I thought I'd lost her and…"

"Damn Saotome, that's got to suck." Nabiki said, feeling sympathy for the boy in front of her. Maybe it was just because she hadn't really seen anyone other than her family members crumble like this, but blackmailing him just didn't seem to appealing at the moment. "So, what do you think about our fathers' plan to marry us?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I donno." Ranma said, shrugging. "I got a memory of me 'n You bein engaged for a while, too. Just promise that you don't sell me ta anyone, and I'll try, okay?"

"Deal." Nabiki said, laughing. As she laughed, Nabiki heard someone calling her. "Nabiki! We're heading home!" Soun yelled, from his position in the Saotome front yard.

"Coming daddy!" Nabiki yelled back, and then looked at the edge of the roof. "Um… Saotome, Can I get a little help here?" She asked, embarrassed.

"No problem Nabiki. Oh, call me Ranma, okay?" Ranma asked, picking the girl up and jumping off of the roof, depositing her next to her father. As Soun was about to start wailing that his daughter and Genma's son were getting along so well, he was shut up by Nabiki, and the three Tendos walked away from the Saotome house, Akane having to be helped by her father.

Ranma turned for the door and walked inside, entering the living room to see food placed out. Sitting at the table, he began to eat.

Later that night, after everyone had gone to bed, Ranma stared up at the ceiling. He was going over the events of the day, thinking about what had happened. School had been a disaster, and The fight with Akane was something he would rather not think about at the moment, but training Ranko had been fun. Also, Nabiki wasn't nearly as cruel to him as he was used to, and he wondered why. Rolling over in his bed, he dismissed these thoughts and went to sleep. Thinking too much was bad for you, after all.

Notes.

OOCNabiki. My characterization of Nabiki is taken from the first few volumes of the Manga, before she became a single dimensional money pit. Keep this in mind. She is IC, but I'm using the character from the beginning of the series. Someone picked this up already, and I forget his name. Sorry man.


	7. Disaster Strikes! Enter the Hibikis!

Sorry for missing yesterday.. Let's just say I had a book report on 2001, a space odyssey that I left for two weeks… Ugh. My head is gunna explode! "I cannot do that Dave." GHH! dies

Chapter 6, Disaster strikes! Enter the Hibikis!

Akane Tendo lay on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. It was morning, but she didn't want to move. A small trail of tears came from her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily. She couldn't believe it! One of the perverts had beaten her in a fight. She had been the best martial artist in the district, aside from maybe Ryoga, until Ranma had suddenly begun showing skills. She could still remember the fight. He had started it off as if fighting was pure torture, which didn't make any sense at all, and then he had seemed to decide something and take her down effortlessly. What was worse, she didn't even have any bruises! He had gotten her with pressure point strikes, similar to the attacks that Dr. Tofu used on the few occasions that he was forced to fight someone. Also, now that she had lost the match against Ranma, she couldn't challenge him about his worth in the Anything goes school again, which meant that He could do whatever he wanted with her older sister.

Hearing a knock at her door, Akane yelled "Go Away!" Before rolling onto her side and putting her pillow over her head.

On the other side of the door, Ryoga Hibiki blinked. That was Akane's voice! He must be at the Tendo Dojo! He had been looking for the place for days, and he had finally found it. The problem was, that Akane had sounded really upset. His short time knowing her, ever since he had wandered into this area by accident a month or two ago, had taught him that approaching her when she was upset was a really bad idea. Deciding to go and find someone else to ask about Akane's mood, Ryoga proceeded to walk down the stairs.

"Oh, hello Ryoga Kun." Kasumi said, from her place at the kitchen stove. Somehow, the lost boy had managed to walk into the kitchen from the back door of the house, even though he had been heading for the living room.

"Hello Kasumi. How are you?" Ryoga asked, setting down his pack in the doorway.

"I'm fine, Ryoga Kun. Would you like some breakfast?" The eldest Tendo daughter asked, pointing at a pot of soup on the stove.

"Yes, Thank you." Ryoga said, grabbing a bowl from the cupboard and taking a surving from the pot. "Kasumi, can you tell me what's got Akane so upset?" He asked, eating a spoonful of the food.

"Oh My, yes. Akane chan apparently challenged someone to a fight yesterday. The other person won." Kasumi said, frowning slightly. "I'm very glad that Ranma san didn't hurt Akane."

"Ranma?" Ryoga asked, half question and half growl. Akane had told him about the perverts at school, and he had been planning to beat them all up, but he had originally intended to start with Kuno. "What did That scum bag do to her?" He continued, squeezing the bowl so hard that it almost cracked.

"According to Nabiki, Ranma san was very gentle. He used pressure points to paralyse her." Kasumi explained, serving Ryoga some rice. "Akane is still very upset about her loss, though. I'm glad it isn't a school day and that she can stay in her room."

Ryoga pondered this for a minute while eating. Kasumi's food was very good, much better than his own camp fair, and he almost lost himself in the taste before asking his next question. "Why did Akane get into a fight with this Ranma guy, anyways?"

"Well, our fathers have decided to engage him to Nabiki, and Akane chan apparently took exception to it. I suppose she was afraid that Ranma san would try what he tried to do to me with Nabiki." She frowned for a moment. "I'm sure Nabiki wouldn't let him if she wasn't ready, though."

'He's engaged to Nabiki?' Ryoga thought, before laughing. 'Poor guy.' He had seen Nabiki extort people at school before, and he even felt sympathy for Kuno occasionally. That was when he made his decision. He would find this Ranma person and see what he was really like. Akane thought anything under the age of thirty and male was a pervert, as she had constantly accused him of perversion for the first two weeks that they had known each other. Maybe this was a case of Akane jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Thanking Kasumi for the food, Ryoga got up from the table and hefted his pack. "I'll be back some time later, Okay Kasumi?" He said, walking through the living room entrance.

"All right, Good bye Ryoga Kun!" Kasumi said, waving cheerfully after the boy. She could never figure out how he did it, but Ryoga could end up leaving the house if he started out for the bathroom. Returning to her breakfast preparation for the rest of the family, she hummed merrily. Maybe she would go to Dr. Tofu's later today to see him? A small blush came across her face as she thought of the young doctor.

On the other side of town, in a small mall, Ranma Saotome and his younger sister walked through and looked from side to side. "I'm sure it was in here somewhere…" Ranma muttered, looking for a particular store.

"Why are you looking so hard for a Chinese clothing store?" Ranko asked, looking up at him curiously.

"The stuff they sell is water proof, and it looks good on a guy or a girl." Ranma explained, still searching for the place.

Ranko shrugged, walking next to her older brother in silence. She was getting kind of bored, but she had been the one who had begged to come along with him when he went shopping so she couldn't really complain. Unlike her and her friends, Ranma very rarely stopped to brows at a store, picking up the bare essentials and moving on. As he caught sight of a particular sign, Ranma got a large happy grin. "Ah, I found it." He said, walking in. Five minutes later, Ranma had changed out of the school uniform he was wearing, he had run out of casual clothing, and into a set of black tangs, with a white silk shirt that had wooden ties down the front. He had also gotten one of his red shirts, a blue one and a fancier black one with an embroidered dragon on the front, just in case he had to go anywhere fancy.

"Lookin good, Saotome." Ranma said, looking in a mirror in front of the shop. Ranko had to agree. Her brother seemed to feel more at home when wearing the silken garments, as if they were all he was used to. Ranma surprised the heck out of his sister when he stopped at a water fountain, deliberately splashing himself.

"Why'd you do that, Ranma?" Ranko asked, idly noting that Ranma was right, and the clothes still looked pretty cool on his female form.

Ranma grimaced. "Now comes the part of shopping I hate the most." She said, before resolutely marching towards a women's clothing store.

Ranko gaped as she quickly followed her older sister inside, wondering what was going on. Soon after, Ranma was coming out of the store with a modest two piece bathing suit, at Ranko's urging, as well as a few other articles of female clothing. Not nearly as much as she had male clothing, of course. Quickly stopping by a rest room nearby, The two continued on to the food court, once again brother and sister.

As Ranma and Ranko sat at a table in the food court, Ranma eating a "Macho Burger" From one of the nearby restaurants and Ranko having some fish and chips, Ranko finally had to ask. "Why did you go and buy girls' clothes, Ranma?" (1)

"Well, some of it is for disguises. Ya won't believe how many people will just let a cute and innocent acting girl get away with almost anythin. It's pretty funny, actually." Ranma explained. "The bathing suit's cuz I like goin swimmin, and I don't wanna get arrested for public indecency." He blushed at the memory of the first time he had gone to a pool as a girl and ended up being fined by the local law enforcement, after they had stopped nose bleeding, of course.

Ranko nodded. That made a bit of sense, when put that way. After a few minutes of companionable silence, Ranma heard a shout that he had heard many times before.

"Where the heck am I NOW!" A voice yelled, from the other side of the food court. Ranma looked over, confused. There was something wrong with the voice. It was too high, almost like that of a… Ranma blinked as he saw a girl, approximately twelve years old, wearing a tiger striped bandanna and a slightly dirty school dress.

Ranko, on the other hand, had a far different reaction. "Yoiko?" She asked, getting up from her table and running over to the young girl.

"Ranko, thank goodness I've found you. I've been lost for the past week. PLEASE take me home!" The other girl yelled, running to grab onto Ranko.

Ranma's sister blinked in confusion. "You've been lost? What do you mean?" She asked, perplexed.

That's when Ranma walked up behind the two. "Ranko, who's this?" He asked, looking at the young and female double of Ryoga in front of him. Her hair was a lighter shade of brown, but she had the fangs and dark green eyes of Ranma's eternal rival.

"This is Yoiko." Ranko explained, looking up at her older brother. "She's one of my friends from school. She just stopped showing up last week. I was really worried about her."

Ranma almost choked as one of his dumber ideas came back to haunt him. "Yoiko? I don't suppose her last name's Hibiki, is it?"

"Yeh, How'd you know?" Ranko asked, confused.

"Um, guys. I'm really sorry to interrupt your conversation, but can you get me home?" Yoiko asked, hopefully.

"Why can't you just walk there? It's only two blocks away." Ranko asked.

"She's – I'm Lost." Came Ranma and Yoiko's voices at the same time.

"How'd you know that?" Yoiko asked, looking at Ranma. "For the past week, anywhere I try to go, I just end up somewhere else! It's been driving me nuts! I'm acting like my brother Ryoga."

"Again with that brother stuff? I've never seen him, Yoiko." Ranko scoffed, having heard many stories of the mysterious Ryoga Hibiki, but never having ever seen him.

"Don't worry Yoiko. Ryoga explained yer family problem to me once." Ranma said, explaining it to Yoiko and surprising Ranko. "He told me it starts around thirteen. You just turned thirteen, right?"

The girl nodded.

"So long as ya get someone else to lead ya, you'll be fine." Ranma said, placing Ranko's hand in Yoiko's. "Don't let go for ANYTHING Ranko. And DON'T LET HER LEAD YOU!"

"Okay, okay." Ranko said, looking at her brother strangely. "How do you know so much about Yoiko's problem, anyways?"

"Her older brother's… was… my Rival. We used to fight all the time, and I walked him home all the time in late Jr. High. Now let's get ya home, okay Yoiko?" he asked, grabbing his shopping bags and heading for the door of the mall.

Ryoga walked down the streets, looking for Ranma Saotome. Usually, when he set his mind on finding someone, he managed to do it eventually. The problem was, that eventually occasionally meant several weeks. Rounding a corner, Ryoga saw three people walking down the street. One of them he recognised as his little sister, but the other two were new faces.

"Yoiko! Wait up!" Ryoga yelled, running to meet his younger sister. Then he noticed that her hand was held tightly in that of someone else, and for a brief second before she had faced him she had tried to turn the other way. 'Oh no! Did she come of age with no one around to help her?' He wondered, worried.

"Hi big brother." Yoiko said, running towards Ryoga and dragging the person who had been leading by the arm. The man who had been with the two girls stopped and turned, getting a strange look on his face before he came to join the group that was now assembled at Ryoga's position.

Once near Ryoga, Yoiko lashed out and punched her older brother in the shin. "You coulda warned me I'd start getting lost last time ya saw me!" She yelled, glaring at him.

Ryoga scratched his head sheepishly. "I kinda forgot, and besides. I figured mom and dad should have told you already."

"Well they didn't." Yoiko said, crossing her arms above her chest in annoyance. "Ranko's brother here had to explain why I've been lost in the mall for the past week!"

Ryoga blinked. He had heard Yoiko talk about her friend Ranko on occasion, but he wondered how Ranko's brother knew about his direction problem. Wait a second. Wasn't Ranko's last name Saotome? "You wouldn't happen to be Ranma Saotome, would you?" Ryoga asked, looking at the boy who had been curiously silent for the past few exchanges.

Ranma, who couldn't really figure out how to greet Ryoga, just nodded. He couldn't decide if he should take Ryoga as a threat, as he was whenever he had thought Ranma had done something to Akane, or as a rather strange friend, as he was at any other time. Not to mention the fact that the lost boy probably didn't even know him. To Ranma's surprise, Ryoga sank into a defensive stance.

"Sorry Ranma, and I'm grateful that you helped my sister out and all, but I have to pay you back for beating up Akane." Ryoga said, before unslinging the combat umbrella that was always hanging on his back.

"Huh? What do ya mean?" Ranma asked, as Ryoga threw his umbrella at him. Instinctively dodging it, Ranma noticed that the lost boy wasn't consumed by rage like he usually was when he fought him. This could actually be interesting.

Yoiko looked at Ranko, scared. "We've got to stop my older brother. He'll demolish Ranma!" She said, remembering that Ranko had laughed in her face the one time she had asked about her older brother's martial arts skill.

Ranko just smirked. "Don't worry about Ranma. I'd be more worried about Ryoga if I were you." She said, leaning on a wall, out of harm's way. Ranma threw his shopping bags at her as he dodged the umbrella's return arc and she easily caught them.

"All right, I'll fight you!" Ranma said, charging at Ryoga. To his surprise, Ryoga seemed to be faster than he was used to. Probably because of the fact that he wasn't attacking in a berserk fury. His punches still packed a good amount of strength though, as was evidenced when he missed Ranma and Buried his arm up to the elbow into a brick wall.

Deciding that he really didn't want to fight at the moment, Ranma channelled a large amount of Chi into his hands and arms, enhancing their strength to the limit. He knew that normal punches wouldn't do anything against Ryoga.

Lashing out with one strong punch to Ryoga's chest, Time seemed to slow down as Ryoga brought up an arm to block. Ranma's fist made contact with the arm, and a sickening crack was heard. Ranma withdrew and looked on in shock as Ryoga screamed in pain, cradling his arm.

"Wh… what the?" Ranma asked, gaping.

"Ranma, what'd you do that for?" Ranko asked, not believing that her older brother had just broken someone's arm. "Wasn't that a bit of overkill?"

Yoiko just stared in mute horror, as her brother sank to the ground, the pain of the break, which was very severe, overwhelming him.

Ranma rushed forward, overcoming his shock. 'Wye did Ryoga's arm break like that? He's a lot tougher than that!' Ranma's mind yelled, before he came to a realization. 'Ryoga never went through the breaking point training here.' He thought, his stomach dropping sickeningly.

Kneeling at the lost boy's side, Ranma looked at his arm. "I'm sorry man. I put way too much force in that last attack. It's gunna be Okay. I'll get ya to the doc's clinic." He said Rapidly, looking at the arm critically. He had evidently almost pulped the bone, but there was still Chi flowing to the arm underneath the break, so it wasn't dead. Pushing his fingers into a nerve cluster above the broken bone, Ranma channelled Chi into them to cause the nerves around that area to go numb.

Ryoga stopped cradling his arm as the pain went away, and he looked up at Ranma in surprise. "how'd you do that?" He asked, experimentally flexing the arm.

"Don't move it. It's still broken. You just can't feel it." Ranma explained, helping Ryoga up. "I ain't very good at first aid, so we should probably get to Dr. Tofu's clinic.

"Right." Ryoga said, not sure how to feel. This guy had just smashed his arm, but he was now trying as hard as he could to help fix what he had done. It seemed to have genuinely been an accident, and that scared him. If this guy could pulp his arm by accident, what could he do on purpose?

HR

In China, near the Joketsu Zoku village of Chinese Amazons, Herb of the musk stood in front of two loyal retainers. "Lime, mint. You will stay here. I am going into the village of the Amazons, and I don't need you two starting a war."

"But lord Herb!" Mint complained, before being silenced by a glair. "yes lord Herb. He finished, meekly.

"Good." Herb said, walking down the trail.

As Herb left, one retainer looked at the other. "I wonder what's wrong with lord Herb?" Lime asked, looking to Mint.

"Yeh. He didn't bathe with us yesterday, and he insisted on sleeping in a different tent." Mint agreed, looking after his master. "I hope he tells us what's wrong soon."

A few minutes later, Herb entered the village of the Amazons, noticing several warriors shooting side long glances her way. Taking off the hood she wore, she heard a few gasps at the face that was revealed. As she walked towards the middle of the village and the matriarchs' hut, a young warrior blocked her path. "What is your business here, Musk?" The warrior asked, holding a sword to block Herb's path.

"I am here to see Elder Ku Lon, Amazon." Herb said, in a cool and calm voice.

"I see. I shall go and get her." The Amazon warrior said, walking to the elders' hut and speaking rapidly to the elders inside. A few seconds later, an old woman came out, hopping on a stick. "Hello Princess of the Musk." Cologne said, cackling as she saw Herb's narrowed eyes. "Oh relax. Your aura if nothing else proves that you are a woman, and the dragon blood I sense confirms your royal status… but I do not mean any disrespect. From your reaction, I assume that you are Jusenkyo cursed?"

Herb nodded tersely. "I am, elder. I seek the Kasuifuu, one of my people's treasures that was stolen by the thief Happosai more than a hundred years ago."

"Ah, so you have been locked?" Cologne asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, elder. I would not be bothering the Amazons about this matter, accept that we have heard rumours that you wish to find Happosai and Defeat him, but do not have the resources. I now need to find the Kasuifuu, so we have one purpose, correct? Herb asked, raising a delicately sculpted eyebrow.

"Ah, I see. Well, maybe I can help you with that. Come inside and let us talk." Cologne said, leading Herb into the elders' hut.

HR

Back in Nerima, Ranma, Ranko, Yoiko and Ryoga were walking to Tofu's clinic, Ryoga's arm rapped in a piece of the school uniform that Ranma had warn to go shopping. "So, why did you wanna fight me?" Ranma asked, looking at Ryoga.

"I wanted to make sure you weren't going to hurt Akane." Ryoga responded, wincing as the numbing effects of Ranma's pressure point strike had begun to ware off several minutes ago.

"Look. I don't wanna hurt Akane. Hell, I didn't even wanna fight her. What are you, her boyfriend or something?" Ranma asked, curiously.

Yoiko fielded this one, grinning. "Yep. She's all Ryoga talked about last time I saw him." Then, adopting a false love struck gaze, she imitated her brother's voice badly. "sigh Akane…" She said, grinning as Ryoga tried to swat her with his good arm.

"I… See." Ranma said, wanting to feel jealous of Ryoga, until he recalled Akane's face the night before.

"We're coming up to the doc's clinic!" Ranko said, pointing ahead of them.

The others nodded, before Ranma opened the front door.

In the back of the clinic, Tofu was drinking tea. It was his lunch break, and he had a very free afternoon. Hearing the clinic door open, he heard four sets of feet entering. Standing, he walked out front and stopped cold. There in front of him was Ranma Saotome, his sister and two people he hadn't seen before. One of them had a makeshift splint rapped around one arm.

"Hello. What's going on here?" Tofu asked, walking slowly towards the group.

Ryoga gratefully slumped into a chair when he saw the doctor, being careful not to hit his damaged arm against anything. "There's something wrong with my arm. I'm pretty sure I broke it." Ryoga said, indicating the sling.

"I see. Let me take a look at it." Tofu said, kneeling down next to the chair and looking at the splinted limb, then scanning with his Chi sight. Seeing something strange above the break, Tofu looked to see that someone had hit a pain suppressing shiatsu point. "Whoever played field medic on you did a good job. I aught to try and train him." Tofu grinned, noticing that the wound was well taken care of. "All I have to do is get you into the back for a few X-rays to confirm, put the arm in a cast and wait for it to heal. It's a good thing it was kept from moving around too much, or it would have had complications."

"That's good to hear, doc." Ryoga said, letting the doctor get him back up out of the chair.

"Oh, who did do the patch up work on you?" Tofu asked, as he lead Ryoga to the back.

"It was Ranma." Ryoga said, not noticing Tofu stiffening. "I challenged him to a little fight, and he hit me harder than he meant to. Happens all the time, but he went a bit too overboard. When he found out he had broken my arm, he immediately did that pressure point thing and then bound it up."

"I see." Tofu said, continuing to lead Ryoga to the back room. "Ok Mr. Saotome, stay here. I want to talk to you." He said, narrowing his eyes at Ranma.

Ranma blinked. He thought that Tofu would kick him out of the clinic right after Ryoga was taken care of, seeing as to what he thought he had done to Kasumi. Shrugging it off, Ranma sat in the chair that Ryoga had once occupied.

Half an hour later, After Ryoga's treatment was completed and he had taken his little sister… somewhere… Tofu sat in the chair next to Ranma. Since there were no patients to take care of he wasn't pretending to like the boy, and just looked at him levelly before asking a question. "How did you know that Shiatsu point?"

Ranma gulped nervously. "You taught it to me, Sensei." He explained. "I had gotten hit with this Full body cat's tongue point once, and I got curious about what Shiatsu could do. I don't really use it in fights, but you told me that I was pretty good at it's medical uses."

Tofu looked at Ranma flatly. "I never taught you Shiatsu, and why would you be hit with something like the full body cat's tongue? It's mostly an annoyance technique developed to keep people from taking hot baths for medical reasons."

"It also kept me from changing back to a guy. Remember that curse I showed you? Cold water turns me into a girl, hot water into a guy. As for when you taught me, You don't remember it but I do. I guess you could tell me to stop using shiatsu if you wanted to, but since all I know is Paralysis and healing points, I don't know why you'd wanna."

Tofu looked at the boy in front of him intently. He was telling the truth. Tofu could tell if someone was lying through their aura, and Ranma wasn't. Sighing and shaking his head, he asked a question. "Ranma, do you remember why I barred you from coming to my clinic unless it was a real emergency?"

Ranma shook his head. "Nabiki told me in school a couple days ago. When I first heard about it, I wanted to go N' hunt down the bastard that'd do somethin like that to Kasumi, but huntin myself would be kinda pointless."

Tofu nodded and sighed. "All right, Ranma. you can use the Shiatsu points you know. I have no problem with that… but you will come to me and learn any healing points that you do not know, understand?"

Ranma blinked. "Huh? Why?"

Tofu sighed. "Because I don't' sense any of the perversion that used to infest your aura in you, and I need an assistant. I still don't really trust you, and if you pull anything you're gone, got it?"

"Yes, Sensei." Ranma said, nodding.

"Hey Ranma, not that this is boring, but this is boring!" Ranko complained, from a seat across from her brother.

"Ok, Okay. We're goin Ranko." Ranma said, grinning at his little sister. "See ya, doc."

"Good bye Ranma." Tofu said waving as Ranma and his sister left. 'Now why in the hell do I feel like I should trust that kid?' He wondered, before going back into his office.

END.

Note.

(1)A "Macho Burger" is a burger that you can get at some truck stops in Ontario. The thing's about the size of a small pizza. I'm not joking! I took three days of meals to eat one! Ranma, on the other hand, would probably find them perfect. :D

To End Guard.

No, I mean what I said. The "Middle Girl." I didn't say the middle Tendo. I was doing 2 things. A, Insulting Soun and B, mentioning Skane.

If you'll notice, I mentioned Akane as the Second of three, the MIDDLE, of two other names.

PS. Please leave CONTACT INFORMATION if you want a question answered. I find answering reviews in a fic like this VERY annoying, and I have no doubt that my readers do as well.


	8. Nightmares, dates and a half assed go

Warning: The beginning of this chapter contains an over abundance of WAFFS. You have been warned.

Sorry for being away for so long. I suffered a bout of temporary insanity and wrote something completely random with no idea what I was doing. I've managed to find and tie my muse up in a corner so I'm back to writing normal fiction!

Chapter 7, Nightmares, Nabiki and a half assed goddess.

Nodoka Saotome was confused. Her son had changed a lot over the last few days, and she wasn't sure what to feel about it. He wasn't nearly as Manly as he had used to be, However this seemed to be a good thing. He was getting along a lot better with Ranko, and from what she had been told by the young girl earlier in the day, he had seemed to make piece with that nice Doctor boyfriend of the eldest Tendo. Granted, Ranko had a tendency to oversimplify things, but she had said that Ranma and Tofu had had a friendly chat. Rolling over, Nodoka hit the back of her sleeping husband. She was in bed, it being very late at night, but she couldn't sleep. She had tried not to think about how her child had seemed to become someone else over night, but it had come back to her today when Ranko had revealed that Ranma had ACCIDENTALLY broken a man's arm. Rolling out of her bed, as she had decided to give up on sleep for the time being, Nodoka slipped on a pair of house slippers and moved into the hallway.

Walking to the far end near Ranma's room, where there was a small balcony that looked out over the front yard, Nodoka heard something strange. It sounded like whimpering. The medium level pitch of the tones made her think that it was a man who was doing it. Could it be Ranma? But he seemed so much stronger recently, and he had never sounded that afraid in his entire life. Her mothering instinct, even though it was slightly dulled by her manliness obsession, kicked in and she opened Ranma's bedroom door to see something that shocked her. Her son was laying in a quivering ball in the middle of his bed, almost in a foetal position. Walking up to him, Nodoka heard what sounded like someone talking in their sleep. "No daddy. Not the pit again, please. Not the cats…"

Nodoka's eyebrows shot up as she heard this. "Pit, cats?' She thought, but refrained from saying the words aloud. Knowing that her son was having a nightmare, Nodoka walked over to his bed and infolded him into her arms.

In Ranma's mind, he was having the dream again. It usually happened whenever he lost control of himself or saw a cat recently, and the inadvertent breakage of Ryoga's arm had seriously shaken him up. As the cats were clawing his body, Ranma felt something warm enveloping him and repelling the scratching and biting creatures. He felt comfort for a second, before he realized what the thing that was enveloping him was. He was still dreaming, but the real world had some impact on it, and he was rather prone to nightmares at the moment do to the fear from the Neko Ken.

Nodoka was shocked when she felt her son tense up again and she heard, "I'm sorry mom. I din't wanna be cursed. I'm sorry. Don kill me." She blinked. What the heck did this mean? And then she had remembered. About twelve years ago, Genma had gotten this strange idea of taking her son on a martial arts training trip. She had objected, and was about to tell him that the family doctor had confirmed that she was pregnant with their second child when Genma had laid out a contract that stated that he would make Ranma a man among men, or the two would commit sepuku. Of course, she had put a stop to that with her revelation that she was having a second child and that Genma would have to stay at home to help her out, but Ranma now apparently thought that he had gone on the training trip, and despite the logic inconsistencies that it represented, he must have somehow found out about the contract. Of course, with his curse he was afraid that she wouldn't except him. Feeling disgusted with herself for the thought that she probably would have accepted that contract from Genma if she hadn't been with child at the time, Ranma's mother held him tighter, even with his slightly larger size, and comforted him.

HR

The next morning, Ranko ran into her brother's room to wake him up. She knew it wasn't a school day, but she was starting to really like finding new and interesting ways to make him get up. She stopped in her tracks and had to restrain a giggle as she saw Ranma curled up in his mother's arms, the two of them snoring away. It was so cute, even if he was a bit too old for it. Ranko was kind of hesitant at waking them up, but knew that she had to. "Ranma, mom. Wake up!" Ranko called, causing her mother to jerk out of her sleep.

Nodoka looked around in confusion before looking down at her son, who was still sleeping soundly on the bed. She then looked at the window to the room, which was letting in streams of morning sunlight, and wondered how she had gotten here. 'I must have fallen asleep in here last night.' She thought, remembering Ranma's nightmares. Nodoka shifted her son off of her and got up.

"Uh. Warm pillow." Ranma muttered, before opening his eyes. "Mom?" He asked, looking surprised. "What's goin on?"

"Don't worry about it, Ranma." Nodoka said, walking out of the room.

Ranma just shrugged before getting out of bed and walking to his dresser, slipping on one of his sets of Chinese clothing which he had bought yesterday. Ranko had run off with Nodoka, so Ranma proceeded to the first floor to join them. Genma, for some reason, was still asleep in bed.

After sitting down at the breakfast table, Ranma waited as Nodoka cooked breakfast. He had offered to help her once, before the Saffron fight, and she had chased him out of the kitchen with a spoon so he waited contentedly to be served. Truthfully, Ranma rather liked Cooking if no one saw him do it and was the cause of more than a few of the well cooked meals in the Tendo Dojo, thanks to Kasumi teaching him recipes. The eldest Tendo's willingness to help him before suddenly reminded him of what he had been accused of doing to her here, and he quickly pushed the rather sickening thought from his mind. "Ah, Food!" He said, as his mother left the kitchen with the morning repast.

"So what are you doing today, children?" Nodoka asked, taking her seat next to where Genma should be.

Ranma shrugged. "Was gunna practice some Kata and go see Tofu for those lessons he offered me yesterday."

"Tofu san offered you lessons?" Nodoka said, surprised.

Ranma laughed. "More like ordered me to come and learn. He says that I gotta learn the rest of the healing pressure points that I don't know or he won't let me use the ones I do."

"You know Shiatsu?" Nodoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not much. Just some basic paralysis and pain suppression points." Ranma explained, taking a large spoonful of Miso.

"What are you doing today, Ranko?" Nodoka asked, switching her focus to her younger child.

"I was hoping to go and see Ranma's Kata and then go play." The girl said, enthusiastically.

Nodoka smiled. She may not like her youngest child learning martial arts, after all it wasn't very ladylike, but it made Ranko so happy that she couldn't really complain.

HR

Nabiki Tendo had a problem, and a big one. She glanced fearfully at the kitchen before turning back to the table in front of her to contemplate her options. Her younger sister banged around in the kitchen, humming happily. Yes, that's right, Akane was cooking. The problem was that the youngest Tendo was an absolutely toxic cook. She, through cooking alone, had dissuaded a man by the name of Pikolette Chardan the third from taking a Tendo wife, even though he had a full legal right and desire to do so. His stated reason was, "If one of you Barbarians can cause duck flambé to taste this horrid then I shudder to think what your genetics would do to my family!" Of course, Akane had gotten rather pissed at him for this and rightly so. The youngest Tendo's main problem was one fact. Actually, more like two. She had her father's taste buds and stomach. She could barely taste anything, causing her to put ludicrously large amounts of flavouring into anything to get the smallest tang to it, and she could eat ANYTHING without getting ill. Of course, since the food tasted fine to her and didn't make her the least bit ill, she thought people were making fun of her when they acted like they were getting severely sick. Problem, Nabiki did not have these freakish genetics, and she just may die from her sister's concoctions. She had also, rather loudly, told the family that she had NOTHING planned for today and that she was going to enjoy a nice and lazy Sunday, so she couldn't claim business with her associates at school.

Looking frantically around for an escape rout that wouldn't completely hurt her younger sister's feelings, Nabiki caught sight of the phone. 'Will he go along with it?' She thought, as a plan formed in her living calculator of a mind.

HR

Ranma was going over a basic defensive move set with Ranko when his mother called him from the front of the Dojo. Looking up, he saw her holding a portable handset in her hand. "Huh? What is it mom?" Ranma asked, correcting Ranko's form slightly as he did so.

"Ranma, Nabiki Tendo is on the phone. She says it's very important." Nodoka said, looking confused.

"All right mom. Just a second." Ranma said, walking towards his mother. 'I hope she isn't going to try and black mail me. I don't have any money left.' He thought, taking the handset and holding it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Oh, Ranma. It's Nabiki. Do you still want to go out on that date today?" Nabiki's voice said, emphasizing the word out.

"Date? What date?" Ranma asked, flustered. At hearing the word, his mother began beaming and drifted off into daydreams of her son's manliness.

"You haven't forgotten the date, have you? Akane's made a lunch for the family and It'd be too bad if I postponed eating it when I didn't have to." Nabiki said, sweetly.

"Akane's made lunch: Ranma asked, paling. "Right. I'll be right over to pick you up." He said, hanging up the phone. He didn't really like Nabiki, but they were engaged by their parents and Akane's cooking was dangerous for him, let alone normal people.

HR

Back at the Tendo place, Nabiki slowly put the phone down with a surprised look on her face. She had thought she would have to prod the boy a lot more but the second he had heard that Akane was cooking lunch he quickly agreed and was coming now. Walking to the kitchen, Nabiki poked her head inside. "Sorry Akane but I have to go on a date with Ranma for lunch. Don't bother serving a plate for me." She said, seeing her sister in a chef's hat and apron. Unbeknownst to Akane, Her apron had the symbol for Biohazard on the front. It had been a gift from Nabiki on Akane's thirteenth birthday, and to the older sister's surprise Akane had liked the pretty black and red pattern.

Akane frowned. "You're going on a date with that pervert?" She asked, still slightly scared for her sister after Ranma had beaten her so easily in a battle.

"Don't worry Akane. You know I won't let him go too far." Nabiki said, secretly agreeing with her younger sister. She didn't really know what she was thinking going out with Ranma, but he knew that she was too dangerous to mess with and he had really seemed to change lately.

Akane nodded. Her sister was right. She giggled at the thought of what Nabiki had done to Kuno the one time he had tried to be perverted with her. Akane still kept the newspaper clipping of that wonderful day. "Well, have fun sis." She said, as she went back to her preparation. Picking up a large bottle of Jalapeno pepper powder, she began shaking a large amount of the extraordinarily spicy stuff into the pot she was stirring. This would taste great!

HR

Herb of the Musk dynasty was having a very, very bad day. First, it was revealed that the Amazon matriarch Cologne was bringing two younger Amazons with her on her expedition, her great granddaughter and a male named Mousse, and second, Herb's retainers had immediately tried to latch onto the female Amazon and drag her off, causing the male to attack them. Now, Herb was watching as her two bodyguards battled a blind man while a purple haired girl watched on and her elder cackled. "Can, We, Get, MOVING!" Herb finally yelled, risking revealing her currently female state by the shrillness of her voice but not really caring at the moment, since she was so furious.

"Yes, lord Herb." Mint and lime said, quickly turning from the blind man and leaving him to throw bladed weapons at two nearby trees.

"Come, Mousse!" Cologne ordered, bopping the blind boy on the head. The girl giggled, as the group made ready to leave. If the rest of their trip was like this, herb wondered if her sanity would be in tact by the end of it.

HR

Ranma nervously knocked on the front door of the Tendo home, waiting for someone to answer it. To his surprise, it was Nabiki. The girl looked over Ranma's Chinese clothing clad form and whistled. "You're actually looking handsome for once, Saotome." She said, with a traditional shark like grin.

"Thanks, I think." Ranma muttered, before he smelled the VERY strong scent of garlic from the kitchen. "You wanna get outta here?"

Nabiki nodded, and the two left the house, neither noticing the celebrating Genma and Soun who were sitting around the Shogi board. As they walked through the streets of Nerima, Ranma got more and more uncomfortable while Nabiki just kept a neutral expression on her face. "So… Um… what do ya wanna do?" Ranma asked, finally giving up on being subtle.

"how about we go out for lunch?" Nabiki asked, quirking an eyebrow. "That's what I told Akane after all and I don't like lying."

Ranma threw up his hands. "I don't got any money, and I won't have any 'till I get a job or get allowance or something."

Nabiki made a long, drawn out and over-exaggerated sigh before reaching into her pocket. "Fine. I'll pay, but you're paying me double back and you're not eating like your father." She said, pulling out a wallet.

Ranma winced about the paying double back part but smiled when he realized that he was getting, at least temporarily, free food. "And I didn't even have to mooch as a girl.' He thought, but kept the thought to himself. If he was lucky, he wouldn't even have to tell Nabiki about his curse. Suddenly, an ominous sounding roll of thunder came from nowhere. Ranma looked around but only saw clear sky.

"That was weird." Nabiki commented, looking up at the blue sky. Shrugging it of, she moved on. "Come on, Saotome." She said, heading to a local sidewalk café.

HR

It had been about half an hour since Ranma and Nabiki had headed to the sidewalk Café, and both of them were actually having a pretty good time. Ranma was always nervous about Nabiki, a good survival practice considering who she was, but the temporarily free food and reasonably good conversation loosened him up a bit.

Nabiki, on the other hand, was slightly miffed about having to put the bill for this date but was enjoying the company of Ranma. Because of how she acted most boys, sensibly, kept their distances from her. She didn't really mind this, however having a handsome date was nice and Ranma hadn't tried anything perverted. Nabiki wasn't nearly as paranoid as Akane, but she had to be slightly afraid of this as set patterns usually continued, and Ranma Saotome had been very set in his ways. After the first little bit of small talk about school and such, Nabiki began to ask about things that were bugging her. "So, Saotome. What's this I hear about you and Tofu making up?" She asked, having heard the rumour from one of Tofu's late afternoon patients who had seen them talking.

"I wouldn't call it that, Nabiki." Ranma said, hesitantly. "Tofu don't really trust me, but he wants to teach me to complete my training in Shiatsu. I hope he can trust me in time, though. Tofu sensei used to be one of the people who really helped me out around here."

Nabiki almost laughed at that but kept it quiet. Ranma had relied on Tofu? Man, he must have gotten one hell of a hit on the head or something to think that. As she restrained her laughter, Nabiki noticed a waiter coming up behind Ranma. Strangely, the waiter seemed to stumble on nothing when he was near the pigtailed boy and a glass of water fell off of his tray and into Ranma's lap. Nabiki gaped as she saw something that she had never seen before. Ranma Saotome shrank and curved into a red haired girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that miss. Would you like a towel?" The waiter asked, too distracted to realize what had gone on.

Ranma shook her head, wanting to shake her fist and curse at the sky. 'What god did I piss off or annoy to deserve this?' She thought, resignedly, before looking at Nabiki. "Believe it or not, I can explain." She said, hesitantly.

Hr

In the temple of the three goddesses, Urd sneezed. Wiping her nose with her hand, she realized that she had just accidentally poured two of the chemicals she had been working with all over a pile of papers. "Damn!" She cursed, only to hear a warning rumble outside. "Sorry father." She apologized, quickly.

From her position ironing clothes nearby, Beldandy looked over at her older sister. "Urd, have you taken care of that Project Saffron mess yet?" She asked, in a kind and unworried voice.

Urd looked pale for a second. "Woops, thanks Bell. I almost forgot." She said, before getting up from the table and running for the Television. Unknown to her, some of the chemicals that she had been handling were soaking her hands as she jumped through. As she came out into the Jusenkyo guide's hut, Urd looked around for a book. Quickly making certain modifications to the entries inside, the goddess hopped back through the television. "All done." She sighed, before plopping down at the table again and resuming her work.

END.

Notes.

About Nodoka. I think she has a maternal side, but it's too tied up with her honour. In the original story she doesn't show it much and she comes off as, and is truthfully, a rather overbearing bitch. In this line, however, she has raised her children and her affection for them has grown quite a bit. I lose all respect for parents who do what the cannon Nodoka did, as my mother did pretty much the same thing, (Without the Sepuku, of course,) but this one has raised her children and has a slightly more loving and accepting personality. Not that her quirks won't show up occasionally. Figured I should say this to explain her OOC behaviour.

Akane's Cooking. How ELSE could she mistake that crap for good food? Besides, I like Akane and honestly believe she TRIES to cook right, and doesn't know her food is really that bad otherwise why would she be so happy about feeding it to people?


	9. Happi's first meeting with Ranma chan

Chapter 8. Happi's first meeting with Ranma Chan and Kuno plots.

Nabiki Tendo stared across the table incredulously, her normal calm and collected demeanour pretty well shattered. "Saotome, if that is you, care to tell me what just happened?" She asked, looking the girl over.

"Yeh, It's me Nabiki. I got this curse, ya see." Ranma said, explaining the whole story of Jusenkyo. After hearing about it, Nabiki had to begin re-evaluating her opinion of Ranma Saotome. She had thought that he had gone crazy, or maybe gone sane would be more like it, and that was why he acted so differently. Unfortunately, this little transformation blew that out of the water. Thinking of an idea, she began to smile.

"No." Ranma said, seeing the grin.

"Huh?" Nabiki asked, looking and sounding almost exactly like Ranma did when something flew over his head.

Ranma continued, having seen that particular smile on the middle Tendo's face the day before she began taking pictures of her girl side to sell to people at school. "No perverted pictures or nothin, and if you sneak in at night I WILL catch you." This wasn't an empty threat, either. Ranma had begun to work out ways to sense Nabiki's little intrusions shortly before the whole Akane kidnapping mess, when he had found out that she wasn't using the majority of the money she made for the home.

Nabiki cursed under her breath, wondering how Ranma had thought of what she was planning to do. Then again, he had seemed to be acting a little smarter lately, even if the math test he had taken on Friday was a total failure. Truthfully, Ranma wasn't outsmarting Nabiki, but using knowledge that she didn't know he had against her. "Well, I suppose this date's a bust." She said, looking over Ranma's female form.

"Ranma shrugged. "Well, Like this I can go get us ice cream." She offered, grinning weakly.

"And you couldn't before?" Nabiki asked, confused.

"Nope. Didn't have enough money." Ranma said, before getting up and walking out of the sidewalk café, Nabiki paying the bill.

Ten minutes later, Nabiki was sitting in a seat in an ice cream parlour and giggling franticly. Ranma's little change earlier had pretty much shocked her out of her normal act and seeing her flirt shamelessly with the guy at the counter was genuinely funny. Bringing over the two medium bowls of ice cream, Ranma set one in front of the middle Tendo.

Nabiki looked over the treat. It was a strawberry Sunday with chocolate sauce on top. "How did you know?" She asked, wondering how Ranma knew of her favourite iced treat.

"Ya black mailed me into buyin enough of 'em for ya." Ranma said, looking predatorily at her chocolate sunday.

Nabiki just shrugged the statement off, figuring it was something she could find out later.

HR

Nabiki walked home to the Tendo Dojo, grinning like the cat that had eaten the canary. True, she had paid for the food at the restaurant but she had had a lot of fun, with someone who was blunt and obviously unafraid of her. True, Ranma knew she was going to blackmail the crap out of him at the earliest opportunity, but it didn't seem to make a difference in how he treated her other than to be sure not to give her much to use on him. The two had done a few things after leaving the ice cream parlour, Ranma getting warm water from the bathroom sink on the way, such as taking a walk down the street and to the park. Nabiki chuckled slightly as she remembered that she had heard Ranma's higher female voice cursing loudly shortly after she had left him. She supposed that he must have somehow gotten drenched. That, of course, brought up the matter of Ranma's curse. It was a strange affliction that she had never seen before, but compared to how he used to act turning into a girl wasn't really much of a problem. Truthfully, from all of her time dealing with revealing photography, she had gotten a bit of an appraising eye for the female form. She wasn't a lesbian, true, but she wouldn't exactly be freaked out by the idea… Not that she was even considering being married to RANMA SAOTOME. No way! She assured herself, shaking her head rapidly. Too bad Nabiki deludes herself so rarely. If she had had more experience with it, she may have noticed what she was doing.

HR

Ranma cursed loudly as he got hit over the head with a wash tub, not five minutes after leaving Nabiki to go home. He was getting slightly used to turning into a girl, but did it have to soak her to the bone every time it happened? Shaking her fist at the owner of the apartment where the wash tub had come from, Ranma sighed in exasperation as she trudged down the street. Putting the annoying incident out of her mind, she began to think about what had happened that day with Nabiki. True, she had only gone on the date in order to save someone from Akane's cooking, a noble pursuit if any existed, but it had actually been kind of pleasant. Of course, that was because Ranma had been dealing with Nabiki's extortion for a long time and Nabiki had almost no experience in dealing with him. As Ranma continued to ponder her thoughts, she heard an angry mob yelling and charging up the street. Looking for it, she saw Happosai running from what looked like a high school gym class. 'Oh man, here comes the letch.' She thought, getting ready for the inevitable.

"Sweeto!" Happosai yelled, seeing yet another lovely woman to play with. The angry and perverted Chi was flying now, energizing him to new heights that he only ever got from angry mobs. It was why he liked creating them so much. Diving towards the very healthy bust line of the petite redhead in front of him, Happi managed to get one grope in before a fist from the girl sent him flying back into a brick wall. During that first grope, Happosai noticed something strange. Firstly the woman wasn't wearing a bra, which he appreciated very much and secondly she had a familiar aura. Bounding off of the wall that the redhead had sent him towards, Happosai catapulted himself back at her.

"Get offa me you old freak!" Ranma yelled, swinging out a fist to dislodge the old lecher who was once again groping her chest. The angry mob had backed off, seeing that their quarry had gotten involved with a well trained martial artist.

"Aw, My dear girl. Please?" Happosai asked, giving Ranma the puppy eyes. Fortunately, said look coming from an old coot is more creepy than cute and Ranma was capable of easily withstanding them.

"Dry up and DIE!" Ranma yelled, trying to kick the old pervert into orbit. Unfortunately, the old man dodged out of the way and tapped Ranma's foot with his pipe. This sent the young martial artist into the nearest wall. Unfortunately for Ranma, Happosai always has an advantage in any fight against an angered woman, unless she delivers the final blow immediately. This is because angry female Chi fills him up like a battery and Ranma was radiating a pretty great deal of it.

"You'll have to do better than that my girl." Happosai chuckled, as Ranma picked herself up from where she had fallen against a wall.

"Yeh… Try THIS!" Ranma yelled, running at Happosai and sending her fists at him in an Amaguriken attack. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguri Ken!"

"Oh, Amazon tricks." Happosai said, trying to dodge the attacks. Ranma's female form was fast though, and she pegged him several times. "Ouch! you little punk. This isn't fun anymore." Happosai yelled, pulling a bomb from his Gi. Happo Dai Karen!" He yelled, releasing it. The bomb had a short enough fuse that Ranma couldn't hit it back, and Happosai managed to get it to blow up on target.

"Ite…" Ranma groaned, as she lay in the middle of a crater. Happosai cackled and gave a quick grope recharge before running off. "I hate that guy." Ranma said, darkly, pulling herself out of the hole to see a disappointed group of women. "Sorry girls, I'll beat 'im some day." She said, walking off.

Happosai watched from a nearby roof, puffing on his pipe. He had finally figured out why the girl's Chi seemed so familiar after his second recharge. It seemed that his young student had two very nice advantages. One was that beautiful little female form of his, most likely from Jusenkyo, and the other was the fact that he seemed to have gone through Amazon training. Happosai wondered if Ranma knew any of the more advanced tricks. If he did, teaching him how to jump to emotionless Chi use would be easier than he thought. Hopping off from his place on the roof the master of anything goes headed back to his hide out at the Tendo Dojo.

HR

At the Kuno mansion, Tatwaki Kuno was pacing back and forth in his bedroom while staring at his wall sized portrait of Akane Tendo. He had a great question to ponder. His former ally in the fight for the beautiful one had turned from the true path, now seeking her elder sister. Kuno did not know why one such as Saotome would wish to be with the mercenary one, however the fact that he was engaged to her must mean that he was in love with her. Also, Saotome seemed to be under the spell of a succubus. Actually, this could explain a lot about why he had fallen for Nabiki.

The problem Kuno was facing was, Should he interfere and strike down the Demon that held his comrade in it's sway? True, it was a samurai's duty to defeat evil, however the demoness was so beautiful. Could Kuno destroy a fair one such as her? Also, although Ranma had been useful in wearing down Akane Tendo from time to time, having him out of the way could also benefit the blue thunder in that department.

"Oh, Mine thoughts art in conflict. What shouldst I do?" Kuno wondered, falling to his knees in front of Akane's portrait. Suddenly, inspiration struck him. He would do both! He would both remove the Demoness's hold on Ranma Saotome and keep her alive to be with him along with Akane Tendo. He must have them BOTH!

A room away from her brother, Kodachi Kuno looked up from her school work to look worriedly at the door. She shuddered at the thought that she had once been like him. A little less than a year ago, she had been in a "Martial arts Rhythmic Gymnastics" match with Akane Tendo, and had tried to "Fight fairly before the match." Unfortunately, she had succeeded and Akane's manipulative older sister had managed to get her arrested and charged with assault. This had resulted in her being thrown into a psychiatric ward for about eight months and mostly purging her system of the drugs that drove her to madness. Unfortunately, her brother wasn't so lucky and his madness was too deeply engrained to go away once it's cause was removed. It must have been because she had tested some of her more potent substances on him. Sighing in regret for what had happened to her family, Kodachi went back to studying.

HR

The next day, Ranma was walking to Furinkan after he had dropped off Ranko, when he saw Nabiki and Akane walking together along the sidewalk. Deciding to walk with them he hopped from his fence to the one on the other side of the street and ran to catch up. "Hey! Nabiki, Akane. Wait up!" Ranma yelled, slowing down on the fence when he got to them.

"Ranma?" Nabiki asked, looking up to the fence top to notice the pigtailed boy, now wearing a set of Chinese clothes in stead of a school uniform. "Are YOU on time for once?"

Ranma laughed and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Well, Yeh. Ranko needed speed trainin this morning so we ran to her school."

"On the fence?" Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I was. She was on the ground. She doesn't have good enough balance to run on fences yet." Ranma explained, remembering the one time he had let Ranko run on top of a fence and she had ended up falling off within five steps.

"Why do you do that, anyways?" Akane asked, looking at Ranma suspiciously. It was getting harder and harder to get really angry at him, especially since her older sister had been pretty happy when she had come home from her date the day before, but she wasn't just going to completely give up on ten years of bad behaviour.

"It's real good balance practice. Ya should try it, Akane." Ranma commented, turning around to walk backwards on the fence top.

Akane just sniffed. "In a skirt? You really are a pervert." She muttered, before running off ahead of the other two to get the Hentai horde out of the way.

As Ranma and Nabiki entered the school yard, they saw that Kuno had, once again, not taken part in the Hentai horde activities and was standing there with his Bokken and something behind his back. "Halt, Saotome." Kuno ordered, striking a pose with his wooden sword.

"Oh no. What now?" Ranma asked, slapping a hand to his forehead. After what the other boy had said on the last school day, he was afraid of what was coming next.

"Fear not friend. I shall use this holy water to cleanse the Demonic possession from you." Kuno said, pulling the object from behind his back. Before Ranma could blink, Kuno had pulled the trigger on the water gun he was holding.

Ranma looked around the school yard full of gaping people, including Akane and Ranma's own class, and turned to Kuno with a snarl on her lips. "Kuno NO BAKA!" She screamed, and then began dismantling the Kendoist.

"That's… gotta hurt." Daisuke said, from where he and Hiroshi were looking on from the second floor.

"I really don't think that bends that way." Hiroshi concurred, as the two heard a loud snapping noise. They both winced, but they somehow couldn't find any sympathy in them for Kuno.

Akane gaped from the door, looking on at the greatest display of Kuno bashing she had seen in her short life. Keep in mind that Akane is the number one contender at Kuno bashing, so this is saying something. Internally, she was conflicted. She could have sworn she had seen Ranma turn into the girl who was beating up Kuno. Ranma turned into a girl. That was definitely perverted, right? On the other hand, the girl was now beating the holy hell out of the school's resident pervert. That was good right? She wasn't even going to try and tackle HOW Ranma had turned into a girl in the first place. This was just way too confusing.

HR

Later, in Language class, Kuno hobbled up to Nabiki, his arms in casts and bandages all over his body. "Nabik Teno." He started, his speech slightly slurred. "I Wis To Kno F Th Pigtaile Demn grl."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. 'Pigtailed Demon girl?' She thought, before smirking. She had been selling information on Ranma's transformation all morning and making big money. She wondered what Kuno would twist the facts into. "All right.. Twenty Thousand Yen." She said, her smirk becoming evil.

Kuno tried to look outraged, but merely ended up aggravating his wounds. Sighing, He gave the money to Nabiki.

END.

Sorry I ended this here. I just needed an update and the inspiration dried up right about now. I'm sure I'll have more later, but here ya go for now! R&R… Or I'll sick Nabiki on you!

Nabiki: Smirks evilly in the background **HE WILL, trust me.** -

last minute rant. I wish "Fry me to the moon" had NEVER EXISTED! Get it out! Please god get it out! starts to cry.


	10. Ranma, weak? Ryoga's heart of glass and

Chapter 9, Ranma… weak, Ryoga's heart of glass And Mint's big mistake.

As Ranma walked home from school on the day of Kuno's little water gun stunt, he grumbled to himself in anger. "That idiot. Revealing my curse to the whole school like that." He muttered, angrily. Not only that, but Akane had been looking at him strangely ever since that moment and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Of course, he wasn't engaged to Akane anymore and she had made it quite clear that she hated him, but he was still worried about her. No, he'd never worry about the tomboy but… GAH, Forget it!

As he rounded a corner, Ranma growled as a bucket of water landed on his head. Her eye began to twitch violently as she pulled it off of her head, snarling as she saw the small form of the anything goes grand master. "Happosai!" She yelled, a full blown battle aura exploding around her body. "I've had a REALLY bad day today, and you're gunna feel it!"

"Well, you can try boy. I just don't think you'll succeed!" Happi said, jumping onto Ranma's head. The red haired girl briefly wondered how the old freak had found out it was her, before punching at the pest on top of her head. Unfortunately, he jumped away. 'Damn. Why can't I hit him? What's wrong with me?' She thought, as the two began to enter a swift and deadly battle. Ranma hadn't really noticed much with any other opponents, as they weren't really good enough to push her, but Happosai seemed to be causing her to make all sorts of misjudgements of her own strength and speed, most of whitch were to her disadvantage. Wheeling around in a swift kick, Ranma made her first connecting blow of the fight. Happi yelped as he slammed into the ground, picking himself up and dusting off.

'Must not end it now. Must not end it now.' The old master thought, knowing that he had to get a full idea of his student's skills, even though there seemed to be a large hole in her timing that was easy to exploit. Throwing two dozen tiny fire crackers, the gnome was surprised to see Ranma intercept them easily, just as he had done in their first fight. Noticing that Ranma was mostly using her life energy for the redirections, he started to realize what was wrong. "Ranma my boy, have you been sick for a while? Your body doesn't seem to be responding right and I'm walkin all over you!"

Ranma gritted her teeth at the insult to her art, but had to concede that Happosai was right. She was slower and weaker than she was used to, and she wanted to know why. Deciding that it could wait for the time being, Ranma threw herself at the master again with a volley of Amaguriken enhanced blows. This attack truly seemed to rattle the old man, and she wondered why. Deciding to try another Amazon trick, she recalled what she knew of Ryoga's attacks and slammed a finger into the ground between the two. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" To her surprise, the ground blew up just as she wanted, but the rubble hurt a LOT more than she thought it would. It was like her body wasn't as tough as it should be, but she hadn't noticed until she fought someone near her level. Panting as the smoke cleared, Ranma saw Happosai puffing on his pipe.

"Now now Ranma. You're going to have to do better than THAT." Happosai said, with a soft chuckle. "Well, I've got some place to go. Good bye!"

"Get back here ya old freak!" Ranma yelled, shaking her fist. After he had left the area, she hung her head and sighed. At least she had found this new weakness of hers out against Happosai, who wasn't really out for her blood. She didn't want to know what would have happened if she had found out about it while fighting Saffron or Herb. Remembering where she was supposed to be before she had gotten distracted by the fight, Ranma cursed before leaping to the roofs.

HR

At Ranko's school, the younger Saotome was getting really bored. She was hoping that Ranma would come soon, and maybe take her for a roof hopping ride. Those were kind of fun, and he promised that he would teach her how to do it one day. It had been twenty minutes since school had let out, and she was jumping from the wall to the sidewalk and back, trying out the trick that Ranma had taught her to get to the top of fences. He said it had something to do with boosting your internal energy or something, but she tuned that out and just did what he did. As she pondered this, Ranko heard the sound of two feet hitting the ground behind her. Looking around, she gasped. There was Ranma, in his girl form and with her entire body covered in small scratches and bruises. Her shirt was also slightly open, revealing part of her left breast. "Ranma, what happened to you?" Ranko asked, running up to the rather frazzled older girl.

"Long story." Ranma muttered, before grabbing Ranko's hand. "I'll tell ya on the way home but I'm real tired, so let's not roof hop or fence walk."

"Okay." Ranko said, looking up at her older sibling worriedly. What had done THAT to Ranma, The person who accidentally broke a tough guy's arm two days before? Whatever it was, Ranko hoped that she didn't meet up with it for a few years yet. Fortunately for her, It wasn't interested in twelve year olds, at least not much.

HR

As Nodoka stood at the kitchen door, idly drying a dish that was in her hands, she heard the front door open. 'Oh, that must be the children.' She thought, before walking out to the hall… and dropping the plate to the floor with a crash. "R… Ranma?" She asked, seeing her older child's cut covered female form. "What on earth happened to you?"

"The Ol' freak attacked me." Ranma explained, kicking off her shoes. "I'm gunna get some hot water, can you grab me the first aid kit?"

"Um, Yes. I'll go get it." Nodoka stammered, walking away. Ranma seemed to regard being beaten up by the grand master of Genma's school as a regular event, and had a routine set out for it. Nodoka wondered if she was going to have to have a "Talk" with Happosai, despite Genma's warnings to the contrary.

HR

Later, Ranma stood in the Dojo, Ranko standing near him in a corner and watching intently. "So, what are you going to show me today, Ranma?" She asked, bouncing excitedly.

"Sorry Ranko but I gotta see somethin about myself today. You can watch, though. It's gunna be pretty cool lookin."

Ranko shrugged, settling down on the ground and watching intently as Ranma began a very fast series of Kata, almost seeming to blur as she watched. After a few minutes of this, Ranma dropped out of the fast series of movements and sighed. "Yep, I'm definitely slower." He muttered, glaring at his own hands. "I bet my power's down, too."

"That was slow?" Ranko asked, gaping. She had barely seen him move.

"Not very much slower than usual." Ranma explained. "I just didn't know I'd lost the speed so I kept making mistakes. I wonder why I lost it…" Getting an idea, he walked out of the Dojo and stood in a grassless patch of yard.

Ranko wondered what her brother was doing as she followed him, seeing him raise his arms to chest level. Suddenly, a strange glow began to surround him, beginning to build in intensity. Ranko hadn't been able to see it, but Ranma's battle aura had been building ever since he had first left the house. It was now in the visible spectrum. As the flame like light flared around him, Ranma began to sweat a bit. He normally never used a visible battle aura, as it was just a cheap intimidation trick and was very wasteful. The only one he knew who could do anything useful with the thing was Happosai, with the fear aura he was capable of producing. Letting the light show fade, Ranma's face reflected perfect confusion. "My Chi reserves are the same size…" he muttered, before heading back in and continuing the test.

HR

As Ranma tried to figure out what was wrong with his body and fighting ability, Nabiki and Akane were in Nabiki's room, the younger girl laying on the bed and lifting barbells over her head while the older studied advanced finance.

"…I just want to know what's going on with him." Akane said, huffing in exertion as she lifted the very heavy weights above her head. "I mean, he was the second biggest pervert in the school and now…"

"It sounds almost like you like the guy, Akane. He is MY Fiancée, you know." Nabiki said, with an evil and teasing smirk.

"That's not it, Nabiki!" Akane protested, blushing.

"So you like Ryoga, then?" Nabiki asked, the smirk becoming more evil. Truthfully, She was glad that her little sister was starting to become interested in boys. She was beginning to worry for a while that Akane preferred women, not that it would have bothered her but their father would have flown through the roof at the prospect, or at least cried the house into a mud bog.

"I don't like Ryoga like that, either." Akane said, loudly. "I mean, he's a nice guy but he's always getting lost! Have you ever seen him try to get to a bathroom?" She sighed. "I just couldn't deal with a guy I loved wandering away to who knows where every five minutes."

On the other side of the door, Ryoga stopped with his hand an inch away from the wood, and let it fall back to his side. "…Akane…" He said, before turning and walking away, tears in his eyes. Unfortunately, she was right. She was settled, with a family, in Tokyo. If Ryoga ever married her and passed on his family curse to her… He shuddered and walked down the stairs to the Tendos' living room, saying hello to Kasumi, who seemed to have moved the stove again.

"Oh my! I wonder what's wrong with Ryoga Kun." Kasumi said, as the obviously depressed boy trudged out of the house.

HR

In Nabiki's room, the middle Tendo seemed to hear what sounded like a breaking window before she dismissed it, continuing to do homework while she teased her little sister.

HR

Walking from the house, Ryoga saw Yoiko, who was standing and holding onto a street sign as he had told her to do in order to keep from wandering off. "Ryoga, that took forever!" The young girl complained, before noticing the look on her older brother's face. "What's wrong?"

Ryoga sighed and shook his head. "Nothing Yoiko." He muttered, before taking her hand. Why did he have to be cursed with a life like the one he had? First what happened in Jr. High, and now this. "C'mon Yoiko. Let's keep looking for your school." He finally said, overcoming his darker thoughts.

The girl just nodded, hoping that she would find the place eventually.

HR

On a small dirt path in the middle of nowhere, Prince Herb was getting rather annoyed. She had only been traveling with the Chinese Amazons for a day and the younger of the women was already getting on her nerves. She had been boasting about how the "Weak" musk males needed her tribes help for the past few hours, and Herb desperately wanted to shut her up, even if it was by taking off her cloak and admitting that she was currently female to stop the girl's harping. The girl's great grandmother had been giving her warning looks for the past hour, perhaps sensing Herb's own mood, but the younger one seemed not to have noticed.

Finally, someone snapped, and it WASN'T, surprisingly, Herb. "Would you shut up!" Mint snapped, turning and glaring at the Amazon girl. The mesmerizing power of her body had worn off on him and Lime earlier, through exposure, and Herb had realized why her great grandmother had wanted her along. She was there to desensitize the two bodyguards to girls.

The purple haired Amazon stopped and looked at Mint in stunned silence. "Excuse me, male?" She asked, rudely.

Cologne just sighed. Her great granddaughter was a good child, but she had soaked up far too much of the elders' teachings regarding men. Cologne herself believed that, although not as intelligent and courageous as women usually, men should be awarded a small amount of respect, especially ones who were as powerful as the Musk.

"I told you to shut up, "Female."" Mint said, using Shampoo's exact derisive undertones in the word, just to get her back.

"This male insults me, I demand a challenge!" Shampoo yelled, and the whole party came to a screeching halt. Herb, who knew something of Amazon culture, looked at Mint worriedly. "Mint, turn down the challenge." She ordered, in a flat voice.

The elder sighed, shaking her head. "According to Amazon law, men have no right to decline challenges issued by women, and we are in Joketsu Zoku territory."

"You have got to be kidding me. Herb said, groaning and holding her own cloak covered head.

"I am afraid not." Cologne confirmed, looking resigned. She knew her great granddaughter was going to lose this fight, but perhaps this would teach the girl humility. As the two leaders talked, Lime looked at Mousse as if to ask what the heck was going on, but stopped as he saw the other boy glaring at his fellow bodyguard. "Hey, what's going on?" He asked, walking up next to the blind one.

"That… fiend is going to take my shampoo from me!" Mousse growled, but knew that he couldn't interfere in the fight. Lime just looked confused, but before he could ask Mousse what he meant, the battle had started… and ended.

Shampoo was the best of her generation of the Joketsu Zoku, but her generation was rather… sub-par. She was a good fighter by most outsider standards, but Mint was one of the two guards of the prince of the musk and was a GREAT warrior. Blurring in with a burst of super speed, the musk boy let loose with several punches at speeds that exceeded the Amaguriken.

"That was… impressive." Cologne muttered, seeing her great granddaughter falling to the ground. "You do know what this means, right?"

Herb nodded resignedly. "I am aware, elder." She said, as she walked over and picked up the unconscious Amazon. "Let's continue, before something worse happens." She said, levelling a glare that no one could see at her wolf skin clad retainer. Mint flinched from it anyways, quickly beginning to walk.

HR

Back in the Saotome Dojo, Ranma stopped in the middle of an endurance exercise, suddenly feeling relieved for no apparent reason. Shrugging it off, he continued to practice.

END!

Nothing to say. Enjoy or hate it. Whatever.


	11. Kuno’s turned tables and Tofu’s test!

Why did I do this? I've been jumping from fic to fic like a frog on speed for the past two months. My question, why not? Anyways, to anyone who likes this fic, enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 10, Kuno's turned tables and Tofu's test!

Ranma grumbled as the rain fell down on her head, causing her clothes to become drenched, and her obvious change in gender.

"What's wrong Ranma, don't like being a girl?" Ranko grinned, as she stood under the dry safety of her umbrella. "You should have brought one of these."

Ranma grimaced, looking at her younger sister. She WANTED to say that of course she didn't like being a girl, but the younger redhead would probably become sad, or even angry about it. Deciding to go for the middle ground, she spoke. "Well, would you wanna be a boy?"

Ranko contemplated that for a moment and shook her head. "No way!" She said, vehemently. The certainty, not to mention loudness, of Ranko's exclamation caused Ranma to laugh.

"Then don't go anywhere near Jusenkyo." Ranma advised, solemnly, as the two walked up to Ranko's school. Most of the children there were inside, but Ranko's two friends, and the new addition of Yoiko, were standing and waiting for the red haired girl to show up.

"Hey Yoiko, how'd you get here?" Ranko asked, curiously.

"Ryoga brought me." Yoiko said, proudly.

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "And how did Ryoga find his way here?" She asked, noting that Yoiko was holding tightly to the hand of one of Ranko's friends.

"Well, we erm…" Yoiko said, blushing. "We were trying to get here yesterday." She muttered, looking at the ground. Ranma just nodded knowingly before running off to her own school. That was when Yoiko realized something. "Hey Ranko, how'd that girl know about me getting lost?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Well," Ranko said, realizing that no one here would know about Ranma's curse, and they'd probably all laugh at her if she tried to tell them. "She's my cousin. I guess Ranma must have told her." She hoped that would fly, as she wasn't a very good liar.

"Really? Your cousin is really pretty." One of her friends, a girl by the name of Kagome, said.

"Yep," Ranko said, some of the pride she had in Ranma's new abilities coming forth. "She's a really strong martial artist, too."

"Really?" Yoiko asked, grinning. "Maybe I could set my brother up with her…"

"I thought you said Ryoga liked Akane Tendo." Ranko asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, he does but…" Yoiko said, trailing off. Ranko was about to ask more about this, but the school bell rang and the four girls headed into the building.

HR

At Furinkan, Ranma jogged up to the front gate, only to see, and ignore, the Hentai horde. That was, of course, until she heard Kuno's voice. "There she is, the pigtailed demoness. Attack, so that we may free our comrade Saotome!"

"Wha…" Ranma asked, as the crowd of boys in various school sports uniforms charged at her, causing her to jump back in surprise. "What's goin on here?" Jumping out of the way of a sumo wrestler who apparently wanted to flatten her, Ranma kicked backwards into the boy's head, sending him to the ground. That was the scene Akane walked in on, as Ranma came around and knocked two soccer players' heads together. Akane had woken up late this morning, due to a malfunctioning alarm clock. Fortunately, she was early enough to make it to class, but only if the Hentai horde was cleared out really quickly. Seeing that the group was distracted by fresh meat, she tried to sneak past. Unfortunately, Kuno spotted her and was about to send the crowd after her as well when it's red haired target crashed into him with both feet, knocking him to the ground. Seeing their leader taken down, the hoard quickly gathered their many fallen and retreated into the school.

"Um, thank you." Akane said, uncertainly, as she approached the form of the person who had saved her from being late today.

Ranma turned towards Akane as she heard this, looking surprised. "Oh, no problem Akane." She said, scratching the back of her head.

"Do I know…" Akane started, before getting a look at the redhead's face. This was the girl that Ranma Saotome had changed into yesterday. A mixture of conflicting emotions whirled around in her stomach, but the one that won out was the residual anger from her fight against Ranma in the Saotome dojo. "Oh, it's you." She said, before walking past Ranma's surprised form. Internally, she felt like a bit of an ass for doing it, especially when she heard Ranma's resigned sigh.

Looking after Akane sadly, Ranma kicked Kuno in the head before walking into the school.

HR

Later on that day, at lunch, Ranma had returned to male form, and was eating lunch in his classroom. As he did so, he thought about what had happened this morning. Kuno had sicked the Hentai horde on HIM. Well, more accurately, he had sicked them on her but the point was the same. Admittedly, that group had to be pretty stupid in order to follow Kuno's orders, but he would have thought they would buy info on his curse from Nabiki, rather than believe what Kuno said. Deciding to find out for himself, he closed up his Bento half eaten, something that would have caused the students in his class to whisper about the apocalypse if they had only known Ranma better, and headed for Nabiki's classroom. It was way too miserable to eat outside.

As he walked up to Nabiki's desk, Ranma noticed that the middle Tendo sister was looking truly annoyed, writing down values in a book. "What's wrong, Nabiki?" He asked, sliding into the desk in front of hers. He had only seen her look this annoyed that time he'd accidentally destroyed her concert tickets, and was only coming anywhere near her because she didn't look annoyed at him.

"Oh, Hi Ranma." Nabiki responded, scribbling yet another figure in her book. "So what do you want?"

"I was wonderin, did you tell all the sports teams about my curse?" Ranma asked, hoping that Nabiki wouldn't ask for too much money. To his surprise, she just answered straight out.

"Yes, I told some of them but someone's been circulating this stupid story about you and Kuno." She answered, with a crooked grin.

"Me and Kuno?" Ranma asked, cracking his knuckles. "They haven't been sayin anything like we're a couple or something have they, 'cuz if they have I'll…"

Nabiki snickered. "No, nothing like that. This voodoo nut in your class started telling everyone that Kuno must have the magical power to turn boys into girls with a water gun. You should have seen what Kuno thought of that."

"Kuno gettin called a foul sorcerer for once, sounds like that's okay to me." Ranma said, snickering.

"Yeah, that would be fine, accept everyone's believing this little candle wearing pissant instead of me!" Nabiki growled, actually showing anger for one of the few times in her life.

"Oh," Ranma said, looking uncertainly around the room. It did seem strange that people would believe Gosunkugi, because it was pretty obvious that was who Nabiki was talking about, in sted of Nabiki, but he supposed it made sense. What was more believable? Ranma Saotome, the school's resident pervert, suddenly acquiring a curse that turned him into a girl out of nowhere or Tatewaki Kuno finding yet another magical artifact, much like the phoenix egg he'd found last month, or the cursed sword he'd found three months ago, that could turn men into women? "So what, now half the school's in fear of Kuno turning them into girls?" he asked, snickering.

Nabiki just nodded sullenly. This was quite possibly one of the worst days in her life, second only to the day her mother died. She had always taken pride in her information dealing, and to have the entire school take the word of some nobody over her drove her truly up the wall.

Seeing Nabiki's bad mood, for once, Ranma pulled his lunch bento out of his school bag and offered her some of it. The middle Tendo proceeded to grab a couple of sticks of pocky that Ranma had wanted to save for dessert and start munching on them. Ranma shrugged and began to eat the rest of his lunch with Nabiki, co-incidentally fueling a few rumors that were floating around the school.

HR

Tatewaki Kuno sighed as he saw the men of his Kendo club flinch away from him as he berated them for their failure to capture the pigtailed demoness this morning. They were not ducking in acknowledgment of an honest rebuke, but were afraid that he would perform some sort of vile magic upon them. He was Tatewaki Kuno, a Samurai. To think that his own teammates thought him capable of performing foul magic tore at his heart. As he walked out of the Kendo club's practice hall, he saw the candle wearing twerp that had started all of this kneeling by the door. "Master Kuno, will you speak with me now?" The candle wearing boy asked, bowing profusely.

"I am not your master." Kuno growled, walking past the boy. "I shall not bother to entertain the notion of you as a student of Kendo, and the thought of my noble self being a sorcerer from whom you may learn the dark arts is truly insulting!"

"But master Kuno!" The boy asked, as he chased Kuno down the hall, the Bokken wielding boy trying his best to outdistance him. "Then how did you do that to Saotome?"

"I told you it was holy water which exorcized the Demon, now be gone!" Kuno said, spinning to strike at Gosunkugi with his sword. Somehow, the spooky boy had disappeared, however. "GAH!" He yelled, demolishing a wall in his frustration.

"Kuno, suspended, a week!" A teacher, who had happened to be behind said wall, snapped as she glared at the hole in her classroom.

"Yes sensei." Kuno said, meekly, before walking down the hall with his head held low. Sometimes, he thought, it just didn't pay to get up in the mornings.

HR

After school that day, Ranma opened the door to Dr. Tofu's clinic slowly, looking around the entryway to see if there were any patients around. As he walked towards the long term patient rooms and Tofu's office, he heard two people arguing in slightly raised voices from within the office. One was male, and one was female. He couldn't really peg the voices, but one was probably Dr. Tofu. Knocking on the door, Ranma heard the argument continue for a moment, before quieting down. A second later the door opened and Dr. Tofu was standing there, a female figure behind him with her back to the door.

"Ranma, you're here for your lesson, right?" Tofu asked, as he waved the pigtailed boy into the room.

Ranma nodded uncertainly, before looking at the girl on the bed. "Doc, why's she here?"

Dr. Tofu smiled. "She will be your patient for a little test. You see, she dislocated her shoulder in a fight recently, and I want you to put it back in by use of paralysis points on the shoulder."

"But doc, there're better ways of putting a shoulder back in than that, and what if I screw up?" Ranma asked, uncertainly.

"Don't worry, I'll be watching." Tofu said, moving over to one corner of the room.

Ranma nodded slowly, and placed one hand on the woman's shoulder, feeling around. He wasn't a medical expert, and Tofu hadn't given him a very hard problem. He did notice, however, that the woman stiffened up as he touched her. Frowning, he felt around the shoulder, but couldn't get the pressure points down right. "Um, I'm sorry to have ta ask this, but could you please take off your shirt?" Ranma asked, beginning to blush. The woman twitched visibly, but Tofu just walked out in front of her and nodded slightly. With a sigh, she fiddled with something on the front of the shirt and opened it up, causing the blue fabric to fall over her shoulders and expose the skin of her back.

Ranma's blush got slightly worse, and he actually had to suppress some rather inappropriate thoughts as he put his hand back on the woman's bare shoulder and found the pressure points needed, first numbing the pain, loosening up the muscles and placing the ball of the shoulder back into place. Reversing the pressure points he had used, he quickly slapped the woman's shirt back over her shoulders, sighing in relief.

"Congratulations Ranma, you pass." Tofu said, from directly behind Ranma. The pigtailed martial artist jumped about three feet, slamming his head into the roof of the room. He hated how Tofu could still sneak up on him, even though he was able to detect Chi voids now.

"Don't do that!" Ranma yelled, as he returned to the ground. Then, he processed what the doctor had said. "Wadda you mean I passed?"

"Yeah, what do you mean he passed?" The woman asked, as she turned around. "I mean he made me take off my shirt, that's not exactly innocent behavior." Ranma gaped, as he saw the face of Ukyo Kuonji glaring at him. Fortunately, he had the good sense not to just say "Ukchan?" out of the blue, or things could have gotten messy.

"Actually, Ranma needed to remove the fabric in between his fingers and your skin to feel the proper point." Tofu explained. "I knew he would have to do that to begin with. That's why I chose you as the test subject. It seems that Ranma was telling the truth though, since I didn't sense a bit of perverted Chi in his aura when he was working on you."

"He wasn't feeling anything at all?" Ukyo asked, feeling a little insulted for some reason.

"Oh, he liked what he felt." Tofu said, smiling slightly. "But lust Chi is different from perverse Chi. Everyone has some degree or another of lust Chi. It's when you let it take over that it becomes perverted. Any emotion can be perverted, uncontrollable anger, even love."

"So this whole thing was a test?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Still slow on the uptake, aren't you Saotome?" Ukyo asked, annoyed, as she picked up the battle spatula that had been stored under the bed for her examination.

Ranma flinched a bit at Ukyo's harsh tone, but shrugged it off. "So are we done for today doc?" He asked, curiously.

"No Ranma, I've still got some things to teach you today." Tofu said, as he lead Ranma out of the room.

HR

In another part of Tokyo, A man lay by a camp fire, a large wooden cask sitting next to him. He was pretty tall, and wore a pair of pantyhose around his forehead. As he tossed a log onto the fire and turned the piece of fish he had caught, he smiled. Tomorrow, he was going to get the old bastard to change his name, and the water in the cask next to him would ensure his success. Getting up from his position next to the fire, he carefully moved the cask away as well and began to set up camp. 


	12. Relaxation, Contemplation, confrontation

Sorry guys, I believe Catonfire would describe this chapter as "Damned filler." It's needed to set up some stuff later, but I guess it's pretty lame.

WARNING: I don't know much about AMG, in fact, I've never seen an episode. The goddesses were originally a gimmick used to get Ranma where he is, but they slowly began to worm their way further in. I will make errors, I will bastardize the series, I ask that you forgive me of this, as I warn you in advance. Also, this takes place two years after AMG, so I don't have to worry about my actions ruining established storylines.

Chapter 11, Relaxation, Contemplation, confrontation and consternation!

Ranma sat gazing at the sheet of paper, her hand firmly resting on her chin in a pose of total boredom. "You sure I always help you with your math homework, Ranko?" She asked, looking suspiciously at her little sister who was studying the paper next to her.

"Yep." Ranko said, as she scratched an answer next to an equation on the page.

"No, that's not it." Ranma said, as she pointed to another number in the set. "Count the number of zeros. It should be four times ten to the fifth, not the fourth." Ranko quickly changed the sum, and then another thing occurred to Ranma. "And why am I a girl right now again?"

Ranko giggled. "Because you lost the game, remember?"

Ranma sighed. She had been beaten in a game of poker by a twelve year old. Truly, life was unfair.

From the door to Ranko's bedroom where the two siblings were working on the younger's math homework, Nodoka Saotome smiled. This was such a cute scene that she didn't even mind that her son was a girl at the moment, and she didn't have the heart to ruin Ranko's plan by telling Ranma that he'd never helped his sister do homework in his life. Carefully closing the door to the room, Nodoka turned and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Maybe those two would like a snack while they worked.

HR

In a small restaurant known as "Ukyo's Okonomiyaki, the head chef and owner paced back and forth, worriedly clenching and unclenching her hands around the handle of her battle spatula. This was NOT good. Earlier this afternoon, she had been chasing the old freak of the district, who had stolen several sets of her chest bindings, when a swing of her spatula hit a brick wall harder than she thought it could and her bad shoulder had popped out of place, yet again. It was pretty standard for her, actually. Ever since sustaining the injury that had violently dislocated it in Junior high, the thing seemed to come out of joint every month or two, and she usually only had to see Dr. Tofu for about three minutes to get it put back into place.

Today though, things had to go differently. Tofu had come up with this stupid story about Ranma Saotome having changed his ways, as if that slime ball possibly could, related to Genma as he was, and asked her to volunteer in a little test he wanted to conduct to prove or disprove Ranma's claims.

"Why the hell did the doc have to be right?!" She yelled, in a voice that could probably be faintly heard outside of the restaurant. She was THIS close to being able to go back home without any trouble. Just go and see if Saotome's son was really worthy of her, and if so marry him. Of course, Ukyo didn't like that idea one bit, being as independent as she was, but as her father constantly said, given the fact that she seemed to constantly dress as a boy, even to the point of having once gone to an all boys school to avoid the girls uniforms, she had almost no chance of landing a husband any other way.

She had had to live around him for a year to 'get a feel for him,' as her father said, and he'd been acting exactly how she'd wanted him to for the entire time, a younger version of the old freak. Of course, her father was going to come to meet him in less than two weeks, and he had to suddenly grow a sense of human decency! Continuing to pace, Ukyo desperately tried to think of a way of dodging the bullet of marriage at seventeen, especially to someone who it seemed she now didn't even know.

'I'll just tell him about the problem, and maybe we can fool my father. I mean, I'm sure he wants to get married to the cross dresser of the class about as much as I want to get married to him, right?' She thought, before another thought hit her. 'But what if he's just faking this so I have to marry him, and he'll go back to normal after my father leaves?' She shook her head after this last. There was no way Ranma could have known that her father was coming in such a short time, heck, he didn't even know they were technically engaged. Deciding that she'd worry about this tomorrow, she hung her spatula over the grill, and went up to her apartment to sleep.

HR

At the Kuno mansion, Tatewaki fumed. How DARE she suspend him, she was just a lowly teacher, and if his father were still at the school… but of course, he wasn't. He had been carted off to a mental institution by his twisted sister, who had betrayed the entire Kuno clan. Why, If she wasn't his sister he'd… He shook his head, banishing the always slightly appealing notion of slicing Kodachi to bits with his Bokken.

She had seemed to get MORE twisted since she got out of that accursed mental hospital, always telling him that his fair Akane Tendo hated him, and not making anymore of that wonderful tea that he liked so much. Why, he had to go and buy his own supplies for that now. No, he had to focus on defeating and capturing the beauteous Demon, and nothing else. He would go to Saotome's home tomorrow and confront her if he had to, after all surely she must follow him there to continue weaving her insidious spell, and thence he would capture and rehabilitate her. Ah, such a lovely plan he had come up with. Throwing back his head, he began to laugh with triumphant glee.

In the next room, Kodachi turned uneasily, having nightmares of her own high, mad laugh and black roses.

HR

In a forest near the Chinese coast line, something that sounded vaguely like a slow firing Machine gun disturbed the dusk air, as a lone Amazon warrior took out her frustrations on a stout tree in the middle of a clearing. The Amaguriken technique that her great grandmother had taught her only a month ago was getting a good workout as the tree began to develop cracks and splinters along her striking surface. Within about thirty seconds, the bark and most of the wood on that side of the tree crumbled, leaving the panting but much less frustrated warrior standing in front of a large pit in the wood.

"Are you feeling better, great Granddaughter?" Came a voice, from out of the darkened shade of another tree.

""Yes, great grandmother."" Shampoo said, in her native language.

"Remember what I told you child, you must learn Japanese if you are to go to Japan with us. Please speak it now." Cologne reprimanded, as she came from the darkness to survey the damage her great granddaughter did to her impromptu punching bag. "Hmm, not bad." She said, as she examined some of the pits her punches had left. "You may be ready to practice the technique with the fire now."

Shampoo only nodded mutely, not willing to trust her grasp of Japanese to say much.

"You can't keep taking your frustrations for what happened out on the trees around here, there won't be any left." Cologne laughed, as she recalled that Shampoo had done the same thing last night when she had woken up from the knock on the head that Mint had used to knock her out.

Shampoo sighed. "Shampoo know, but this so humiliating." She said, looking down at the ground. "Males not supposed to be strong as Amazon warriors, it not right!"

"That is your problem, Shampoo. Although female warriors have more potential than males, 'At least according to the elder council,'" she thought, considering the towering mass of Chi that the Musk prince, currently princess, in the main camp had, "We must remember that you are not as experienced in battle as the one who defeated you. Take this as a learning experience."

""A learning experience, but I'm MARRIED to a MUSK!"" Shampoo yelled, forgetting herself and yelling in Chinese in her anger.

"Yes, and not my first choice of Musk either, but who's fault is that?" Cologne asked, slightly sharply. "This is not the way I would have wanted you to learn this particular lesson, but what is done is done."

"But great grandmother…" Shampoo said, as Cologne walked away.

"I am sorry child, if I had known this was going to happen I would have picked one of the older warriors." Cologne said, before pogoing off into the darkness on her staff.

"Grah!" Shampoo yelled, smashing the remains of the tree she was practicing on with her fist, and to her shock, actually knocking it down. Following her great grandmother back to the camp, she spent the rest of the night glaring at Mint. Of course, in the back of her mind, she had to wonder who the Musk her great grandmother would have chosen was.

HR

In Asgard, Urd of the three temporal goddesses stood in Kami-Sama's waiting room, looking distinctly nervous. She had been called up here rather angrily, or at least as angrily as her father ever got. The lightning bolt that had contained the summons message had hit her before getting to the point. As the door opened, Urd noticed that her father was facing away from her, only his silhouette visible as usual. "I am here as ordered, Kami-sama. "She said, nervously. She was pretty sure she knew what was coming, and it was not going to be fun.

"Sit down, Urd." Kami-Sama ordered, as a chair materialized in front of her, as well as a desk with a computer. She did so, and clasped her hands in front of her, waiting for what he would say next. "Do you know what you have done?"

She blinked, then went through her memory for things that she had done recently that may annoy Kami-sama to the degree that he would order her up here. "Is this about Project Saffron?" She asked, nervously.

"That is precisely what this is about." Kami-Sama said, turning to face Urd, revealing his fiercely scowling face, an eye patch over his left eye. "I allowed it to slide with a minor reprimand when you failed to steer the Hibiki couple off course and prevent the conception of the Saotomes' second child, thinking that you would make some attempt to fix your mistake."

Urd winced at that remark. It had always seemed cosmically unfair that a life had to be sacrificed to prevent the ascension of Saffron, but she knew that it was necessary, and that she should have done it.

"I let you have TWELVE YEARS to fix this mess, Urd." Kami-sama said, his voice rising to an actual angry roar for the first time in recent memory, which for a goddess was a pretty damned long time. "What do you do when you can't avoid the matter anymore? You call for a request from another part of the System, using resources that you as an administrator KNOW can't be used lightly, and another version of Ranma Saotome's soul is sent to substitute for the one in this world."

"Is, is there something wrong with that?" Urd asked, uncertainly.

"Is there something…" Kami-sama sputtered at this, looking purely astonished. "Urd, thanks to your screwing up, it's recorded that even if Saffron IS stopped, within forty years Ranma Saotome will ascend to god status!"

Urd gulped. She would have to check that with skuld, because she hadn't seen it coming. In fact, she couldn't see any reason for that to happen, but Kami-sama knew far more than she did after all. She just waited, ready to face the punishment that Kami-sama would dole out for this kind of failure. The last time something this big went wrong, the poor goddess responsible for it had quietly disappeared for several weeks, and come back quivering in fear, a complete basket case. She had eventually recovered, but Peorth just hadn't been the same since, what with all that random switching between languages.

Kami-sama turned to Urd, finally calming down from his very rare display of temper. "As you probably have guessed, there are consequences for a failure of this magnitude. Quite frankly, we need to know how Ranma Saotome is going to ascend to godhood, and stop him somehow. Killing him simply isn't an option, unless his character changes radically in the next forty years. Hild still agrees that we can't risk a random shuffling of the doublet system, so she's authorized ONE agent to interfere in this matter. Since we can only send one, it will be you, Urd."

"Me?" She asked, confused. This wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was going to be. A simple babysitting assignment wouldn't be all that bad. then she noticed that Kami-sama was holding something out to her in one hand. It was a set of limiter earrings, but they were very bulky, and had class 8 etched into them in rune script. "What are these?" She asked, looking at the limiters.

"Those are your punishment. You will perform this mission while wearing class 8 limiter earrings, that you may not take off unless it succeeds." Kami-sama said, with a grin.

"I didn't even think there WAS a class 8!" Urd yelled, unbelieving. If this class was proportionally lower from the class 2 goddess she currently was, she wouldn't have enough power available to light a candle!

"There wasn't until this morning." Kami-sama said, with a small smile. "Now go. Transport to the temple where your sister and Mr. Morisato live, and then place those earrings on. Your new identity papers will be transferred to you by skuld tomorrow."

"But this isn't fair!" Urd said, loudly, before remembering who she was talking to. After he glared at her, she revised her opinion. "I mean, yes sir!"

"Good." Kami-sama said, as Urd left the room.

END.

Wow, I Almost feel sorry for Shampoo, and I definitely feel bad about poor Kodachi. Bet you never thought a fic author'd say that, ne?

Question: Why does Ukyo still cross-dress?

Answer: In this universe, Genma was alone on the trip, and bargained Ranma's hand for something of the Kuonjis. Ukyo hadn't met him, and when she understood what marriage entailed didn't want to marry someone she didn't know, so started cross-dressing in preparation to scare the guy away when she eventually met him. Plus, it's one of her main character traits that I wouldn't feel right changing. Sorry. 


	13. 12A,B Brothersisterly love, and the

Hey, catonfire. I'd like to apologize for snapping at you in my review reply yesterday. I was having a VERY bad day, and I took it out on you. I have recently acquired a script of the A!MG Manga, and am diligently reading it with my speech reader. You were right. Sorry again, man.

The actions that Kami-Sama took last chapter shall be explained. He's not just a cold bastard, and his motives will someday be clear. Ryoga's also, when he has his altered back-story explained, and it is REALLY different, let me assure you. A cookie to anyone who can guess what it is, and yes there are hints to it scattered through the last few chapters.

Chapter 12-A. Brother/sisterly love, and an insightful Ryoga?

Urd stood in front of a mirror in her room at the temple, holding one of the class 8 limiter earrings in her hand. Carefully, she switched the class two seals she was wearing for them, and felt the majority of her power fading into the background, yet her informational link with Yggdrasil was growing slightly stronger. She had expected this to happen due to her new role as a monitor of Ranma Saotome, but what she hadn't expected were the changes to her physical appearance, as her hair turned light brown, and her voluptuous figure faded to almost plain proportions.

She looked like a normal eighteen year old Japanese school girl. Grimacing in disgust, she turned around to see her younger sister Skuld staring at her from the doorway. "What are you looking at, squirt?" She asked, annoyed.

"Just noticing that you look a lot better like that." Skuld said, before smiling vindictively. "Old hag."

"Why you!" Urd yelled, and extended her hands. "Urd bolts!" To her shock, nothing happened aside from a mild fizzling spark that formed at the ends of her fingers, before disappearing.

"Class 8 limiters, remember?" Skuld asked, before she pulled a file folder from out of hammer space and handed it to her sister. "Here's your new identity." She said, more seriously.

Urd took the file folder, and looked it over. She was apparently a high school girl named Urd Nushiko, third year and newly enrolled at Furinkan high. "Urd Godchild?" She asked, looking at Skuld skeptically.

"It was all I could think of." Skuld said, blushing slightly. "Are you going to need a ride to your new apartment?"

"I'll be all right." Urd answered, a little confused that Skuld would offer. "Will you be all right as the primary administrator for Yggdrasil for the duration of my new assignment?"

Skuld nodded, before walking from the room.

"Good luck squirt!" Urd called, as her sister headed for the temple's bathroom. She thought she heard someone yell "Same to you old hag" from inside, but she couldn't be sure.

Walking into the living room where Keiichi sat watching TV, Urd looked around for her second sister. "Where's Belldandy?" She asked, having not seen her anywhere.

Keiichi shrugged. "Megumi dragged her off somewhere." He answered, in a tone that indicated that he wasn't too thrilled about this, then he noticed Urd's new look. "What happened to you?"

"Oh well, I'll say goodbye to her later. As for what I look like, it's for my new assignment." Urd said, as she stepped towards the Television and tried to step through, where-upon she just kicked the glass with her foot, stubbing her toe. "Youch!" She yelped, glaring down at the offending toe and at the television alternately.

"Is there something wrong?" Keiichi asked, looking at Urd in concern.

"I guess these limiters keep me from using transportation spells too." Urd answered, as she fingered an earring. "I guess that's why Skuld asked if I needed a ride to Nerima."

"Well, if you need a ride there I could take you on my bike." Keiichi offered, uncertainly. "It's a pretty long way from here to Nerima."

"Thanks Keiichi." Urd said, looking thoroughly disgusted with herself for not thinking of the possibility that she could lose her method of travel. As Keiichi went to get his motorcycle keys, she got the distinct impression that her troubles for the day hadn't even gotten started yet.

HR

In the Nerima district, Ranma casually walked along the fence, his arms behind his head as his sister walked on the sidewalk ahead of him. As he was pretty early for school, he could afford to take his time, and Ranko had walked almost half way to her school without having to get off the fence to rest. Hearing the sound of someone running towards him, he tried to turn around, however his bad luck with water, there was a canal next to the fence, caused him to miss a step and fall backwards. As he hit the water, he heard the distinct sound of Ranko screaming in terror.

HR

There he was, The poor fool Saotome who was under the spell of the vile demon in woman's shape. What was worse, the demon was now apparently out side of Ranma's body, posing as a harmless young girl. In a way, this was good as it no longer distracted him with it's luscious curves, and it's beautiful eyes, and it's bountiful breasts, and it's…

he snapped himself out of his almost drooling state, with difficulty, and decided that now was the time to attack, when the demon was distracted with staring at Saotome in some perverse seeming of childish innocence. He Sprang from his concealment in a bush, running towards the two. What luck, Saotome had fallen into the canal, and the demon was alone.

As he brought his Bokken down and the beast let out a desperate scream, he was shocked to see a black ribbon snake out and grab his target away, to a location that he could not see. He was more shocked, however, when the more beautiful version of the Demon came roaring out of the water where Ranma Saotome had fallen, pure anger in her eyes.

HR

Ranma came shooting out of the canal, her mind clouded with worry of the same sort that she had always felt when Akane was in danger. She had heard her sister's terrified shriek, and she would find who had made her scream like that and make them suffer. Looking around, she couldn't see Ranko, however Tatewaki Kuno was staring in slack jawed amazement at her, with that stupid Bokken of his held in his hands. "Kuno, did you attack my sister?" She asked, in a low and dangerous voice.

"Indeed, if that small hell spawn was your sister evil one, then the samurai Tatewaki Kuno didst indeed slay it with all dispatch." Kuno said, confused, but still knowing an opportunity to brag when he saw one.

"You'd better be lying as usual, or I'm gunna kill you Kuno… slowly." Ranma said, cracking her knuckles. As Kuno didn't seem to be retracting his statement, she formed a ball of blue light in her hands, firing it at him with a shout of "Moko Takabisha!" Following the ball in, she rained punches onto the battered form of the Kendoist, shoving him back with each blow until he was flat against a wall, when a voice cut through her rage.

"Ranma, stop!" Ranko cried, as she ran from the corner where she had been pulled by the mysterious black ribbon, seeing her brother turned sister beating up the man who'd attacked her. She knew he shouldn't have done it, but this was going too far.

"R, Ranko?" Ranma asked, as she stopped beating on Kuno long enough to let him slump to the ground. Running to her sister, she hugged her in relief. "I was so worried about you, are you all right?"

"I was okay, the ribbon girl saved me." Ranko said, cheerfully.

"The ribbon girl?" Ranma asked, looking to where Ranko had come from. Recognizing a familiar aura behind the corner, her eyes widened. "Kodachi?" She asked, surprised.

Kodachi Kuno slowly walked from the shadow of the corner building, revealing herself to be wearing a blue and black gymnasts leotard, and holding a coiled ribbon around her left arm. "Hello, are you the pigtailed Demon girl that my brother has been harping on about?" She asked, looking at Ranma curiously.

"Yeah, I guess…" Ranma said, surprised to see that Kodachi seemed almost sane, and had saved her sister. "Um, I'm sorry 'bout beatin up your brother like that, but I thought…"

"That is quite all right." Kodachi said, as she looked over at Tatewaki sadly. "As you may know, my brother gets very strange ideas in his head that sometimes take a beating to get out… but I must ask, did I truly see you as a man before, and a girl now?"

Ranma looked slightly nervous, but nodded. "Yeah, I'm cursed to turn into a girl when I'm hit with cold water. I'm really a guy." She said, still weary of Kodachi, and wondering at her strange attitude.

"That is hard to believe, but it is far better than the alternative, that I am relapsing into insanity." Kodachi said, with a small smile, as she picked up her brother and slung him over one shoulder.

"You need help with him?" Ranma asked, concerned.

"Sadly, I do this often." Kodachi responded, before bounding off towards the Kuno mansion. It was a good thing that she had decided to follow her brother this morning, after seeing the slightly more insane than usual look on his face, or the Kuno family name may have been sullied by the murder of a small child. As she reached the mansion grounds, she dumped her brother off of her shoulder, not truly caring on which part of his body he landed.

Looking at a large clock that her father had had mounted to the front of the house, she realized that she would be late for her own classes at St. Hebereke if she didn't hurry, and ran to get changed into her school uniform.

HR

Back with Ranma and Ranko, the elder redhead looked at the receding form of Kodachi Kuno in astonishment. Was it possible that she had just seen a SANE member of the Kuno family? She would have to ask Nabiki about this when she got to school, assuming she had enough yen in her pocket to cover the info.

"Ranma, are you coming or not?" Ranko asked, tugging on her older sister's shirt.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry Ranko." Ranma said, continuing down the street with her sister.

HR

As Ranko and Ranma approached the middle school, Ranma saw Yoiko standing out front, her older brother next to her with a light cast on his broken arm and looking confused. "Hey Yoiko!" Ranko called, running ahead of Ranma. To her surprise, her friend began to point at Ranma, talking to her brother.

"See, that's her. Isn't she cute?" She said, happily.

Ranma stopped in her tracks. She'd just been called cute, by a twelve year old… her eye began to twitch, but then Yoiko went on.

"And she goes to Furinkan high, she can lead you there too. Isn't that great?" She continued, talking to her brother.

"Yoiko…" Ryoga said, looking distinctly embarrassed. "What did I tell you about this last time you tried it?"

"But Ryoga, please, with what that Akane girl must have done to you to make you look so sad last time, at least go to school with her, you always said you wanted to go to school again anyways, please?" Yoiko begged, looking up at her brother with puppy dog eyes.

Ryoga sighed. "All right." He said, and his sister jumped up and down happily while Ranko and Ranma looked bemused.

"Do I get a say in this plan?" Ranma asked, her eye twitch having gotten worse.

Yoiko looked at Ranma, realized that she must have heard everything she'd said, and had the decency to blush. "You… heard that?"

"Yeah." Ranma said, and smiled. "But I'll at least take him to the school if he wants."

"Yeah, if you don't mind." Ryoga said, sending a death glare at his younger sister.

Ranma nodded, and grabbed Ryoga by the hand, if only to keep him from wandering off in the wrong direction before beginning to walk towards Furinkan. After the two were out of earshot, Yoiko grinned. "I think they like each other!" She said, happily.

Ranko just sweat dropped as her friend grinned idiotically, before leading her into the school. She hoped Ranma didn't hurt Ryoga too badly.

HR

While walking to Furinkan, Ranma and Ryoga were in an uncomfortable silence before the latter broke it. "I'm sorry about my little sister." He said, blushing. "She decided she was my personal match maker last year, and she hasn't given up since."

Ranma just nodded. "Yeah, I'm starting to get the idea that little sisters are like that." She said.

"So, what's your name?" Ryoga continued, wondering what that last comment meant. Ranma stopped, floundering around for a name to give the lost boy. She could just tell him she was Ranma, but given the scene earlier at the school he could fly into one of those rages of his and start attacking her, and she didn't want to have to deal with it. Before she could say anything, he continued. "You're Ranma, aren't you?"

The redhead stopped, and looked at Ryoga in shock. "H, how did you know that?"

"Well," Ryoga said, hesitantly, "I read your Aura, and noticed it was really close to his. Saying that you were Ranma was just sort of a guess." He admitted, sheepishly.

'Since when could Ryoga read Auras?' Ranma thought, but decided to forgo asking him this question, as she realized that it was getting late. "We'd better keep going." She said, grabbing Ryoga's hand again and walking for the school.

"Next time, Yoiko should set me up with someone who's actually a girl." Ryoga said, looking annoyed.

"This has happened before?" Ranma asked, surprised.

"Well, the last time she set me up with someone, it was this cross dresser named Tsubasa."

Ranma grimaced.

"You know him?" Ryoga asked, surprised. Maybe he was wrong. He had thought there was something more than simple cross-dressing going on here, given that Ranma now had more Female chi than a guy was technically allowed to have without going kinda unstable.

"I met him once or twice." Ranma agreed, but thankfully got to drop the subject as the school came into view. To her annoyance, the crowd of Hentai were there, and Akane had apparently already gone through them judging from the straight line of unconscious bodies in the middle. "if you can still fight with that arm, You mind helpin me out with these guys? I'm gunna be late as it is." She asked, looking at Ryoga.

The lost boy just nodded, and the two charged at the Hentai, carving through them like hot knives through butter. Surprisingly, Ryoga's progress was only rarely hampered by his injury, and Ranma began to notice that his loss of strength and endurance had benefited him in other areas. He'd be pretty fun to spar against, if she could train him up to a level where he could take a few hits, at least.

END part A.

Chapter 12-B, The attack of the eight foot tall Tentacle horror!

Ryoga looked at the now male Ranma, as he exited the men's bathroom brushing water off of his face. "So you change with water?" He asked, curiously. "You'll have to tell me how that happened at some point."

Ranma nodded distractedly, before looking at Ryoga. "Can you get to registration without getting lost?" He asked, looking at a clock in the hallway and noticing that he was already ten minutes late.

"I wouldn't chance it if you wouldn't mind." Ryoga said, embarrassedly. Seeing how lost his sister kept getting in the last week had re-enforced the fact that Hibikis had no sense of direction, usually so easily ignored, and he was uneasy about wandering off now.

Ranma nodded, taking Ryoga's hand and leading him to the principles office.

HR

"Class, let's welcome Ms. Kuonji back from her four day long leave of absence." Ranma's class teacher said, glaring at Ukyo, who had been off for the past week to make extra money to keep her restaurant open, just in case her father decided not to let her return home. She blushed, and tried to slink down in her seat, when she heard something that sent her bolt upright. "And I'd like everyone to welcome a new student, Ryoga Hibiki. Mr. Hibiki, perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself?"

Ryoga looked distinctly nervous as he walked to the front of the room and faced the class, clearing his throat. "Hello, I'm Ryoga Hibiki. My family are travelers and I haven't been to school since Jr. high, so it's nice to be here."

In her desk, Ukyo clenched her jaw, and tightened her hand on the side until her knuckles turned white. What in hell was HE doing here? Luckily, she didn't make any more of a commotion than that. As Ryoga bowed to the class and walked back to his seat, he caught sight of Ukyo and flinched away from her.

HR

That day at lunch, Ranma was headed towards the tree where Nabiki normally operated her little information business, wishing to ask about Kodachi Kuno. As he came close, he saw Ukyo already there, talking to Nabiki quietly. As she finished, Nabiki pointed at Ranma, and Ukyo looked annoyed. "That's what I get for thinking you'd be hard to find." Ukyo grumbled, as she turned to Ranma.

"Were you looking for me Ukcha- I mean Ukyo?" Ranma corrected, hoping that Ukyo wouldn't notice his slip.

The Okonomiyaki chef raised an eyebrow, wondering about what Ranma had almost called her before. She had gotten a lot of information about Ranma's supposed mental transformation from Nabiki, but she didn't know why he would ever call her Ukchan. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about something, Saotome." She said, deciding to get right to the point. As she was about to continue, she heard Nabiki give a soft curse from next to her.

"Is it just me, or is that smoke coming from the Dojo?" Nabiki asked, worriedly, as she pointed to a curl of smoke that rose into the sky in the distance. Ranma looked where she was pointing, and saw it. "Damn, I guess I'll talk to you later, Ukyo. Nabiki, go find Ryoga and take him to the Dojo." He said, as he ran for the edge of the school yard.

"Where are you going?" Nabiki asked, irritated, as she ran after him.

"To see what that is!" Ranma called back, as he leapt over the wall and hit the edge of a nearby roof. Ukyo looked back and forth from Nabiki to the small trail of smoke, shrugged, and went after Ranma. Kasumi and Soun Tendo were usually at the Dojo at this time, and the eldest Tendo sister was a friend of hers, and occasionally ordered food from the restaurant.

Growling in annoyance, Nabiki went to get Ryoga, wondering why Ranma had told her to do it and thinking that she'd get him back for ordering her around at some point.

HR

As he reached the Tendo Dojo, Ranma saw a smoldering pile of what appeared to have once been women's panties in the middle of the yard, and a hole in one of the walls. Soun Tendo was standing on the porch, looking shocked and with twin streams of water trailing down his cheeks. Walking up to him, Ranma waved his hand in front of the older man's face but got no response.

"Mr. Tendo, are you all right?" Ranma asked, but Soun continued to stare in teary eyed astonishment at the burning pile and hole in his wall. Sighing in annoyance, Ranma ran out of the Tendo compound, finding that there was an easily traceable trail of destruction leading into the distance. Hearing what sounded like an explosive going off, he quickly increased his pace along the trail, wondering what the heck was going on.

HR

"You aren't getting away, freak!" Taro yelled, charging after Happosai with the cask of water over his head. Unfortunately, the old man had gotten him with a cup of hot tea earlier, changing him back from his monster form into a human, but he was going to get Happi with this water and get him to change his name if it was the last thing he did!

"Just give up my boy, besides. I don't see what's so wrong with the name pantyhose!" Happi said, as he dodged a punch of the hand that Taro wasn't using to hold up the cask.

"Well you wouldn't!" Taro yelled back, as he caught sight of a glass of water sitting on a table in an open air Café nearby, and went for it.

"No ya don't." Came a third voice, as a red blur zipped in front of Taro, taking the glass with it.

"Who the…" Taro said, before seeing a black haired boy with a pigtail standing on the street next to Happosai.

"So what do ya want Taro?" Ranma asked, before realizing what a stupid question that was. "Oh right, ya want your name changed."

"I don't know how you know what I want, but it doesn't matter. Are you siding with the old man?" Taro asked, cracking his knuckles.

As Ranma looked around his new battlefield, he contemplated this question. He had sided with Taro against Happosai before, but it seemed that the monster cursed boy had done something that had left Mr. Tendo in shock, and Ranma didn't know what Taro would be like here, where everyone else seemed to be somehow different. Then, he caught sight of the cask of water that Taro was holding, and recognized it. It was the exact same one he had brought to splash Happosai with "Spring of drowned Virtuous man" water, that had actually turned out to be from the spring of drowned twins. Was it possible that he was doing the same thing here?

"Hey old man, does he have tentacles?" Ranma asked, looking at Happosai.

Happi looked surprised, but nodded. "Yes, he just merged tentacles into his cursed form recently, how do you know about that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Never mind." Ranma said, now pretty sure he knew what was going on, even if he didn't know how it was happening. "Taro, you really don't wanna use that water on the freak, it's not what you think it is." He said, doubting that Taro would believe him.

"Oh, then what is it, if you know so much." Taro said, scowling. This guy was getting on his nerves. He just showed up, interfered with his plan to get Happosai to change his name and now he was saying that he didn't have the right spring water?

Ranma looked at Happosai, pictured what he'd probably do if he knew that there was spring of drowned twins water in Taro's cask, and shook his head. "I can't tell you." He said, instantly knowing that it was the wrong thing to say when Taro ran at another source of water, a water fountain, nearby. Ranma dove to stop him from transforming, but only succeeded in getting himself wet along with Taro, changing into female form. As the tentacled monstrosity rose up in front of her, all she could think was "Oh shit…"

HR

Ukyo jumped from rooftop to rooftop, cursing herself for letting Ranma outdistance her. One thing was for sure, he was as good a martial artist as Nabiki claimed if he could move that fast across the roof tops. She had arrived at the Tendo Dojo just seconds before, and when she had asked Mr. Tendo where Ranma had gone he had just pointed mutely to the hole in the wall.

Now, she was following a trail of singed roof tiles, broken pavement and for some reason, a large amount of broken water pipes, to the scene of a battle where she heard bombs exploding and other sounds of heavy combat.

As Ukyo arrived on the scene of Ranma, Happosai and Taro's battle, her mouth hung open in shock. There was a red haired girl who looked an awful lot like Ranma's little sister, only older, battling some sort of giant monster with tentacles while Happosai jumped around the sides of the fight throwing the occasional bomb. As the girl got pinned by a particularly nimble maneuver by the monster's tentacles, Ukyo decided to act, unslinging her battle spatula from her back and jumping down, bringing the blade down in a swinging arc that sliced into several of the appendages.

The creature gave a bellow that sounded strangely like a bovine moo before dropping the girl, who tossed a grateful "Thanks Ukchan!" over her shoulder as she dove back into the fray. For a split second, Ukyo stopped at the sound of the name the girl had called her. It was the same one Ranma had almost called her at the school, and Nabiki had told her about some sort of transformation curse, could this girl be Ranma? Before she had time to think more, one of the monster's undamaged tentacles swung around and tried to knock her feet from under her, causing her to jump up and out of the way. 'Damn sugar, better get your head back into the fight.' She thought, not even wondering WHY she was fighting this monster in the first place.

HR

As Keiichi drove his sidecar equipped motorcycle down the narrow streets of Nerima, he began to notice that the place had more than it's fair share of battle damage, both new and old. "Are you sure this is where you're supposed to go, Urd?" He asked, uncertainly.

"That's where my target lives." Urd said, shrugging from her position in the sidecar where Belldandy usually sat.

"So why do you have to do this assignment, anyways?" Keiichi asked, finally breaking the silence. Urd and Skuld had both been called up to Asgard last night, and now Urd was suddenly on some sort of mission.

"I'm supposed to monitor a mortal who may become a god." Urd said, as she looked around for the next turn. "I'm supposed to find out how he ascends and stop it."

"But wouldn't it be good to have another god around?" Keiichi asked, confused.

"It would if it didn't mean that we needed a new Demon to equal the odds again, and then we'd need to re-order the Doublet system to take them into account, it'd be an administrative nightmare, not to mention that the demons could sneak a few assassins by us while the system's down." Urd said, glumly.

"What's wrong?" Keiichi asked, as Urd directed him to turn right at the next intersection.

"Nothing…" Urd muttered, before the bike rounded the turn, and the two were confronted with one of the strangest sights even they had ever seen.

"I, is that a demon?" Keiichi asked, concerned.

"If it is it's the strangest one I've ever seen." Urd answered, as she climbed out of the sidecar.

"Maybe we should get out of here." Keiichi said, nervously. "Those girls seem to be handling it." As he said this, one of the two girls who were fighting the Demon, a redhead, dove out of the way of one of it's tentacles, allowing the brunette to cut it off. The demon roared in pain, and convulsively twitched all of it's many limbs, sending a wooden cask it had been holding into the air, and directly at Urd and Keiichi.

Urd tried to erect a shield to deflect the cask, which had a very strong magic signature emanating from it, but the shell of force sputtered and died, causing her to remember that she was currently a class eight. Cursing, she tried to dive out of the way and closed her eyes, awaiting impact…

To Be Continued!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Talk about a cliffie! So, if last one was "Damned short filler," what is this? 


	14. Unlucky chapter, unlucky person

Wow, when you read this you're gunna want to kill me or hug me. Positive most of you won't have seen this coming. 

DO NOT READ END NOTES UNTIL AFTER THE CHAPTER!

Chapter 13, the most unlucky chapter, The most unlucky person…

Ranma winced in sympathy as the cask of water flew into the head of a woman who had just arrived at the battle scene on a motorcycle, her companion doing the same. Thankfully, the blunt force impact seemed to have not done anything but knock the woman out, sending her to the ground in a crumpled heap. The monstrous form of Taro dove over her body, catching the small missile in his tentacles once again before it could crack open on the ground, and flapped his wings to boost himself into the air.

"Where the hell're ya going?" Ranma yelled, as she saw that the monster was fleeing from the battle.

"I think he's chasing Happosai." Ukyo said, looking around to see that the old man was nowhere in sight. "Now can you tell me what's going on here?"

Ranma looked worriedly after Taro, and shook her head. "Sorry, but I can't let him get the ol' freak with that water. I've gotta go after him." Seeing the unconscious form of the girl who had been knocked out by the flying cask being tended to by the man who had come with her, she frowned. "Can you take her to doc Tofu's? I think she could be hurt pretty bad."

Ukyo was going to protest, but then remembered that Ranma had been training under Dr. Tofu, and she just may know what she was talking about. Of course, the idea that this girl was Ranma was still rather hard to swallow, but this wasn't the time to question things like that. Nodding, she headed for the couple near the motorcycle.

As Ukyo left, Ranma jumped to a rooftop and looked for any sign of Taro or Happosai, quickly seeing an explosion from what looked like a local public bath.

HR

At Furinkan, Nabiki burst into Ranma and Akane's class, searching for someone. "Ryoga, where's Ryoga…" She panted, having run to this class on the third floor from the school yard, and just now catching her breath.

"Ms. Tendo, I trust you have an explanation for this?" The teacher asked, glaring at her.

"There's something wrong at the Dojo, Ranma told me to find a guy named Ryoga, is he in here?"

"Something wrong at the Dojo?" Akane asked, standing from her desk.

At the back of the room, a boy with a black and yellow bandana stood as well. "I'm right here, Nabiki-san." He said, heading for the front of the room.

"All right, come on." Nabiki said, leading Ryoga and her sister out of the room, and down the hall. A few minutes later, the lost boy scooped the middle Tendo into his arms, as she began to slow down.

"Hey, what are you doing to my sister?!" Akane asked, glaring at Ryoga suspiciously. She had thought that he wasn't a pervert.

"I'm carrying her so we can go faster." Ryoga explained, sighing as he saw Akane's glare. The youngest Tendo blinked, but then nodded and Ryoga sighed in relief. He knew she was just trying to protect her sister, but a mallet strike could slow him down too much right now.

HR

At the bath house, Taro roared angrily as his tentacles pierced the wall next to Happosai, the old man having jumped out of the way just in time. "Now c'mon Pantyhose my boy. Let's be reasonable about this now!" Happosai said, slightly panicked. He knew that the monster was carrying a pretty decent amount of Jusenkyo water, and some of the pools in the accursed training grounds could do particularly bad things to one such as him. Also, the shear size of the boy's cursed form and the amount of limbs that the octopus gave it made him almost impossible to fight.

Taro just growled, launching a burst of ink from one of his tentacles and blinding the old master of Anything goes, who hadn't seen this ability coming. Within a few seconds, Happosai was bound up in several tentacles, and being held as far away from Taro's body as possible. The monster seemed to give it's equivalent of a laugh as it held up the Cask, beginning to crush one end to get at the water.

"Now, H-how about you reconsider this. I'm just a sweet innocent old man. Please STOP!" Happosai yelled, as a blast of blue energy came out of nowhere, knocking him from his prison and across the room. "Could you have been a little more gentle?" He coughed, as he immerged from the rubble of a wall that he had been thrown into.

"Sorry 'bout that old man, figured you wouldn't mind." Ranma said, as he entered the room, now male and holding a bucket full of hot water. While Taro was surprised and distracted by his singed tentacles, he pitched the bucket at him, returning him to human form.

Taro glared angrily as he resettled the cask, it's lid now slightly cracked, carefully so that none of it's contents would spill. This left him with use of only one arm, however, so he was pretty much on the defensive. Worse than that, he was in the middle of a bath house, where hot water could be found in abundance. "So, why are you defending the old bastard?" He asked, deciding to buy time to think of a plan. "Unless you're another pervert, I doubt you actually want to save him from becoming a kind and virtuous person."

"Taro, if he was gunna become kind when you hit him with that water, I'd help ya hold him down, but you got the wrong spring water, and you REALLY don't wanna use that on him." Ranma said, carefully alternating glances between Taro and Happosai.

"Well, you tell me that but you won't tell me what's really in this thing, so how about I test it on YOU femboy?" Taro said, smirking as he cracked the top of the cask the rest of the way open and pitched some water towards Ranma. Unfortunately, due to his usual luck with water, the pigtailed boy wasn't able to get out of the way in time, and got doused completely. Strangely, nothing happened aside from his usual curse, and he shifted to female form. She glared at Taro, wiping her red bangs from in front of her eyes.

"Damn, that's strange…" Taro muttered, looking at the half cask full of water that he still had. "Well, it didn't do anything really terrible to you, so I still think I want to get the old freak with this and make him change my name!" he said, running at Happosai once again, and deciding that if the water hadn't effected Ranma it wouldn't do anything to him either, dipping his hand in and immediately shifting to his cursed form. The monster immediately bellowed after that, however it sounded just a little bit off. He didn't seem to notice.

Happosai yelped as a group of tentacles came at him again, and quickly ran out of the bath house. Ranma, however, just looked stunned. There was something strange going on here. Of course, she was glad that she hadn't suddenly gotten a twin, but the water wasn't doing what it was supposed to. What if it had done something like lock her curse instead somehow? Her face paling, she ran to one of the large pools of warm water in the room and jumped in, sighing in relief as he returned to male form.

HR

Where in the world did you lead us now?" Nabiki yelled, as she glared at the lost boy who stood next to her. Akane had gone off in another direction to find Kasumi when the three had reached the Dojo.

"I think we could be back at the school." Ryoga offered, hopefully.

The middle Tendo just growled, as she went to find someone to ask directions from, ensuring that she led the lost boy instead of the other way around. True, she hadn't really had much of a reason to stock up information about him, but she really should have found out about something as big as his ability to seemingly get lost in a room with one door. Quickly getting the information that she and Ryoga had somehow wound up on the other side of town from a helpful shop keeper, she looked back at the lost boy. "Now, let's go." She said, while thinking that she was going to do horrible, horrible things to Ranma Saotome the next time she saw him.

HR

Ranma sneezed as he leapt across rooftops yet again. This particular chase was getting pretty annoying, yet Happosai had started to bolt like a scared rabbit after the incident in the public baths, for some reason, and Taro was going almost as fast. The decrease in strength that he had noticed yesterday had begun to show now, as Ranma's endurance was running low. He would definitely have to start some pretty hard training soon.

A few minutes later, Happosai realized that he couldn't hope to outrun someone who could fly, and turned to face the winged monster who descended upon him. Focusing, he sent one of his fire cracker bombs at the beast, hitting where he wanted to and sending the half empty cask flipping into the air once again. The grand master of anything goes quickly avoided it, and most of the water splashed off of the rooftop, landing on the street below. He sighed in relief, thinking that he had dodged the horrible fate that lay within the cask, when he heard an ear piercing scream followed by a loud thumping sound.

Ranma, who had just arrived on the roof, quickly jumped to the ground while Happosai ant Taro continued to fight, now not caring what they did since they didn't have the drowned twins water anymore. When he got to the ground, however, his eyes widened in shock at what he saw.

HR

At Ono Tofu's clinic, The front door opened as Ukyo Kuonji carried the sleeping form of Urd, while Keiichi followed her. He had tried to convince her to let him take the goddess back to the temple, but she had argued that such a bad knock to the head needed to be looked at, and he couldn't contradict her without giving something away. Besides, with those limiters, Urd really COULD be badly injured.

"Hey, anyone in here?" Ukyo called, leaning the unconscious Urd against a chair.

"Ukyo-san?" Came a woman's voice, from the back of the clinic. "What's the matter?"

Keiichi blinked as he heard the voice, blurting out the name "Belldandy?"

Ukyo just looked at the man next to her oddly, before responding. "Kasumi, we've got a girl out here with a pretty bad bang to the head. Is Dr. Tofu here?"

The two heard a few strange sounds, before a door in the back opened, and Dr. Tofu exited it, his glasses slightly crooked, and his face flushed.

"Were we interrupting something?" Ukyo asked, slightly amused despite the situation.

"N-nothing, nothing at all!" Tofu stuttered, his glasses fogging up slightly. "Now, what seems to be the problem here?" As he said this, Kasumi exited the same room that he had, looking slightly less flustered, but still wearing a bit of a blush.

"Tofu-kun, do you need some help?" She asked, walking up to him and straightening his glasses.

Tofu cleared his throat, examined Urd's head, and nodded. "Thank you Kasumi, get one of the beds in the back ready, it looks like she will be out for a little while."

"See, the doc's one of the best doctors in the ward, your friend should be fine here sugar." Ukyo said, as she looked back at Keiichi.

"Thank you, Ukyo-san." Keiichi said, gratefully. Looking up at the clock on the wall, he winced. "Is there a phone in here? I need to call Belldandy and tell her where I am or she'll get worried."

Ukyo raised an eyebrow, remembering that Keiichi had said that name when he had first heard Kasumi's voice, but shrugged it off. "Sure, I think the doc's got a phone in his office." She said, leading Keiichi back there, while Urd slept on.

HR

Ryoga Hibiki felt strange. He and Nabiki had just been doused with water from some careless person on the upper floor of an apartment building, however when he had turned to see who had done it, he had felt something off in his balance. It was almost like his chest moved a little bit on it's own, and his shirt sleeves were falling a little bit over the backs of his hands.

Looking down at his chest, he saw that his shirt was slightly baggy and wrinkled, aside from in one place where it seemed to fit correctly. Curious, he reached with his hands, feeling the area. There were two things there. They were soft, and round… and they hurt if he squeezed them too hard. With a feeling of impending doom, he opened the front of his shirt, looked down and screamed before realizing what he was seeing and passing out with a massive nose bleed.

HR

Nabiki looked in astonishment at the body that lay on the ground next to her, a stream of blood flowing from it's nose. It was wearing Ryoga's clothes, however it didn't look much like Ryoga. In fact, it looked like a black haired girl, a bit over average height, with a decent body. "How…" She muttered, before hearing someone hit the ground behind her. She turned to see Ranma, standing and gaping at the form on the ground.

"Nabiki, is that Ryoga?" He asked, seeming to be in a state of shock.

The middle Tendo daughter just looked confused. "That… Was Ryoga, I think…" She said, uncertainly. "We got hit with this water and he… she…" She seemed to ramble off into incoherence at this point. If anyone from Furinkan could see her like this, they would probably think the end was near.

"So that's why the water didn't do anything to me." Ranma said, then snickered. "But it's gunna be really funny when Taro realizes what he did to himself."

Suddenly, Nabiki was back to her cold and controlled self, walking up to Ranma. "You know what happened, Ranma?" She asked, calmly.

The pigtailed boy only shrugged.

"THEN TELL ME!" She yelled, sounding almost hysterical.

"Well, I think Pantyhose Taro accidentally brought spring of the drowned girl water to use on Happosai instead of the spring of the drowned virtuous man… but I don't know how that happened, 'cuz it was supposed to be spring of drowned twins water…" Ranma explained, slightly nervous because of the way Nabiki was acting. Maybe the stress of all of the changes hitting within such a short time had made her crack, or something. 'Nah, this is Nabiki.' He thought, dismissing that notion.

"So now Ryoga's got the same curse you do?" Nabiki asked, quickly getting the idea.

"Yeah, pretty much." Ranma said, as he heard the sound of someone groaning from the ground.

"Ugh… I just had this really strange dream." Ryoga said, as she opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing the back of her head where it had struck the ground. "I dreamed that I got turned into a girl and…" She trailed off, as she noticed that Ranma and Nabiki were both staring at her, looking nervous.

Then, she realized that her voice sounded different. Eyes widening in horror, she looked down at her chest once again. Yes, those were breasts. With that firmly established, she stood up, looking very shell shocked. Ryoga had been, since at least two years before, practicing mental discipline to control his temper, and excesses of emotion. Ever since the incident in Jr. High, he had realized that they were a problem. Another problem at the moment however, was that HER brain was on the verge of complete collapse from shock, and would grasp onto whatever it could to keep from blacking out. Quickly and sketchily connecting several dots, it came to the only thing close to a logical solution in this situation. "Ranma, this is all your fault. Prepare to die!"

Ranma gulped as the enraged black haired girl who was actually Ryoga charged at him, murder in her eyes. "SorryNabikiIgottago!" He yelled, running in the opposite direction.

End.

Notes: Damn, I'm not too good at the description of the traditional Ranmaverse running battles… well, good to know anyways. Oh, I need a name for poor Ryoga to use at some point in the future. I'm currently leaning towards Hichiki, which means "Faulty direction," but that just sounds mean…

Sorry, but I spent the last week trying to describe how to install a power supply to a computer illiterate. Damn my lack of depth perception, or I'd have done it myself and gotten it done in thirty minutes… At any rate, Here's the next chapter, and I didn't mean for the cliffie to last this long. That'll teach me for putting one in, ne?


	15. Chapter 14, Unexpected Sources

(Weebee is on the bridge of a Defiant class starship)

Weebee: Sorry for the delay folks, but my muse got assimilated by the Borg. We're going to get her back now. (Weebee points at navigator, who looks suspiciously like Ryoga Hibiki.) Engage!

Ami Mizuno(Operations): Captain, Several Borg Transwarp conduits are opening approximately 100 kilometers ahead. It looks like five cubes, sir!.

Weebee: On Screen.

Borg: We are the borg. You will take your muse back. her biological and technological distinctivness are... strange. She will not be added to our own! resistance is futile.

Misato:(Is beamed into the middle of the bridge, one foot off of the floor. Gravity takes over.) Oof!

Ami: Sir, all of the cubes have re-entered their transwarp conduits, and it looks like they permanently sealed them.

Misato: HEY! What the hell was that for!?! (looks around, sees weebee.) Bout time you showed up, they didn't have any beer. and you had damned well have a good reason for taking your sweet time

weebee: (Rubbing temples) Ah, Miss Mizuno, please run CR-14 on the main viewscreen.

Chapter 14, Unexpected Sources.

Ranma sighed in relief as he slid to a stop, shooting yet another look backwards. Ryoga, apparently, had gotten lost. This was a good thing as Ranma wasn't really sure how to fight her. He'd outgrown his dislike of fighting females, mostly, and even if he hadn't it would have been a moot issue since Ryoga was actually male, except for one problem. Angry women still tended to be able to get lucky shots in on him, no matter how tightly he held his defenses.

Wincing, he reached up and rubbed at a knot on the back of his head that had been caused when Ryoga had, despite her slightly diminished strength, lifted a heavy box of fruit from the edge of the street without slowing down and thrown it at him.

Taking note of his current location, the martial artist observed that he wasn't very far from where he'd started running from Ryoga, having doubled back and run through back streets as much as they had. Deciding that he'd better go find Nabiki, who hadn't looked very well before, Ranma only gave a brief thought to where the lost boy, or girl, had gone this time.

HR.

Ranko munched on a small chocolate bar that she'd gotten from a pouch on the front of her school bag, while she, Yoiko and their friends sat on the benches at one corner of the playground. "I'm telling you, Yoiko, I think that test was pretty easy."

The brown haired girl just frowned, gazing off into the distance. "I can't believe I got a C+." She grumbled. "My parents are going to kill me…. Next time they find me."

"Well, that's not going to be for a few weeks, right?" One of the other girls, Kagome, spoke up before being elbowed in the side by her companion, Reika. "Oh, right…" She mumbled, Yoiko giving her an annoyed look.

Looking for something to change the subject, the long black haired girl pointed across the yard. "Hey, who do you think she is?" She asked, curious.

The other three looked where Kagome was pointing, only to see a much older girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen, running into the yard. Her short hair was kept out of her eyes by a bandana similar to Yoiko's, and she wore a heavy looking pack on her back.

"She looks a little like you." Ranko observed, looking at Yoiko.

"I guess." Yoiko returned, about to get back to her sulking over having almost failed the test, when the older woman shouted something that drew all of their attention.

"Saotome! Damn it, where did you go?!"

"Did you just hear…" Ranko asked, only to get a nod from her three friends. "I guess I should probably answer her." She resolved, getting up from the bench and slowly walking into the middle of the yard.

Kagome and Reiko, obviously not wanting to go anywhere near the obviously unhinged newcomer, stayed exactly where they were, but Yoiko sighed. "Hey, what are you thinking?" She demanded, quickly moving to follow the slightly shorter redhead.

"Well, she wants a Saotome, right?" Ranko asked.

Yoiko just sweat dropped, but continued following her friend. Sometimes, she felt that Ranko didn't care very much about self-preservation.

The woman with the large backpack didn't seem to notice the two smaller girls approaching her at first, looking around as if trying to get her bearings. It wasn't until Ranko tapped her on the arm that she noticed them, and it took her quite a bit of willpower not to start punching the redhead as soon as she saw her. No, she realized, this one was a bit too small to be Ranma. "Excuse me," Ranko said, flinching slightly as she saw that the black haired woman looked pretty angry. "You were looking for a Saotome, right?"

"Huh?" Ryoga asked, her mind slowly returning to a non-enraged state.

"I'm Saotome Ranko." The little girl replied. "Is there something you want?"

"Oh, no. I'm looking for Saotome Ranma." Ryoga replied, not thinking, before something clicked. "Hey, where am I?"

"This is Furinkan Jr. High school." Yoiko replied, instantly. Recently, any time she could give someone ELSE directions, she felt distinctly proud of herself.

"Yoiko?" Ryoga asked, as if realizing that the other little girl was here for the first time. The brown haired girl just looked at her, blankly, and blinked a few times. "It's me, Ryoga!" She said, and that got a reaction.

Yoiko backed away. "Ranko, I think she's nuts, we should probably get out of here." Yoiko said, still backing up but not wanting to turn her eyes away.

Ryoga growled, and turned her face to the sky. "And now my own sister doesn't recognize me! DAMN YOU RANMA!!!"

"Um, what did my brother do to you?" Ranko asked, starting to agree with Yoiko, but not wanting to show it.

"There was this water, and then he jumped down off of the top of this building, and I… I…" Ryoga shuddered, gesturing at her body.

"Water?" Ranko asked, and then began to think. While it was unlikely that this woman was really Yoiko's brother, she HAD seen her own older sibling turn into a girl before. "Just like Ranma's change, it's triggered by water!" She said, happily.

Ryoga blinked, and Yoiko looked at her best friend worriedly. 'Oh great, she's gone nuts too.' She thought, but still followed when Ranko grabbed the strange woman by the arm and started pulling. It was then that Yoiko noticed that the woman had a cast on the arm that Ranko wasn't holding, one that looked a lot like her brother's.

HR.

A few minutes later, Ranko, Ryoga and Yoiko were in a women's bathroom inside the school. Ryoga had been rather reluctant to enter, but when Ranko had told her that she knew how to turn her back, she'd quickly overcome that reluctance.

"Let me get this straight." Yoiko said, as Ranko let the hot water tap run. Unfortunately, since the school had really bad pipes, it took a second for the water to get hot. "Your brother has a curse that turns him into a girl?"

Ranko nodded.

"And he was that girl who brought you to class today?"

Ranko nodded.

"And now you think Ryoga's got the same curse?"

Ranko nodded.

"You're insane." Yoiko said, flatly.

"It's hot enough now, I think." Ranko said, ignoring her friend and turning to the lost girl.

"You're sure this will work?" Ryoga asked, uncertainly.

Ranko shrugged. "No, not really." She answered, completely honestly.

Ryoga's eyebrow twitched, but she stepped up to the sink, splashing herself with the water. Instantly, she felt her body shift and re-arrange, and he was standing there, as good as new. The lost boy patted his chest several times, and then started to grin happily. Spinning around, he sank to his knees, and grabbed both Ranko and the shocked Yoiko into a near bone crushing hug. "THANK YOU!" he yelled.

"You're welcome…" Ranko gasped.

"Let me go, Ryoga!" Yoiko exclaimed, just as the door to the bathroom swung open and a woman wearing a black skirt suit walked in.

"What on earth is going on he…" She started, then got a look at the scene. She immediately charged at Ryoga, brandishing the clipboard she'd been carrying under her arm previously. "You let those girls go, you pervert!" She demanded, bringing it down on top of his head.

HR.

Urd loved Sake. It was her power source, after all, and deities usually developed a taste for their power sources or had them changed. What she didn't love, however, was the hangover that she got when she over-imbibed.

"Oh, she's waking up." Came a voice, one that sounded very familiar. As the goddess of the past opened her eyes, she winced. "Belldandy, could you turn the lights off?" She croaked.

"Hmm, a lot of people have been mentioning that name today." The familiar voice said again, now clearly linked to an unfamiliar brown haired woman who was sitting next to her bed. A second later, the woman was up and pulling a set of blinds over a window above her head. "Is that better?"

"Thanks." Urd replied, now able to see much more clearly. "What happened?" She asked, now having her doubts that she was suffering from a hangover.

"Apparently Pantyhose Taro threw a barrel of water at you." The woman said, placidly, before her calm look darkened slightly. "Someone should have a talk with that boy."

"P… Pantyhose?" Urd asked, finding herself smiling simply because of the bizarre name.

The woman who was apparently her nurse nodded. "But don't worry about him, how are you feeling?"

"Just a bit of a headache." Urd replied, and then reached up to feel her head. She winced as she brought her hand to it, feeling the large bump on the side of her skull through her hair. "Where's the man who was with me, his name's Keiichi."

"He went home a little over an hour ago. Apparently, he's gone to get your sisters." The woman replied. "Tofu-Sensei tried to tell him that you would be all right, but he insisted."

Urd nodded, then sighed. This was one heck of an assignment. Not ten minutes into the district, and she got smacked in the head by a flying barrel. Something told her this would be a LONG trip.

HR.

"Nabiki?" Ranma snapped his fingers in front of the middle Tendo's face. "Nabiki?" He tried again.

She blinked.

"Are you okay?" He asked, when her previous vacant stare, focused about 10000 yards off into the ether, seemed to refocus onto him.

"D...drowned girl, you said it was drowned girl, right?" She asked, almost sounding crazed.

Ranma looked confused for a moment, then seemed to realize what she was thinking. "Yeah, you're fine." He said, trying to be reassuring. "It didn't do anything to ya."

Nabiki sighed in relief, before her shoulders slumped. "You know, Saotome," She drawled. "Being in the same district as you can be hazardous to one's sanity."

He winced. "Look…Nabiki, I'm sorry. I didn't think the idiot'd throw cursed spring water off the side of a building." He winced. "I hope no one but you 'n Ryoga got hit."

"Ryoga?" Nabiki asked, and then seemed to remember. "Oh, right, where is he?" She looked around, still slightly out of it and almost expecting the lost boy to come wandering out of Ranma's shadow or something, given how weird things had been getting.

Ranma shrugged. "He's lost." He explained. "I'll have ta deal with him later, but for now we should probably get you back to the Dojo."

"Right, the Dojo." Nabiki said, nodding decisively.

Ranma looked at her oddly. It was true that he occasionally wanted to see the middle Tendo daughter's calm, condescending attitude shaken, but this… this was just freaky. "Come on." He said, and started to lead the way to the Dojo. As he did so, he marveled at how far he, Happosai and Taro had gone, and precisely how much damage they'd done.

As the two walked down the streets that lead to the Tendo girl's house, she was looking much more relaxed. Her formerly wild eyes were now calm and cool, and her hair had been roughly styled back into an approximation of its usual bowl cut. Even her clothes had dried, mostly, of the Jusenkyo water that had been dripping off of them.

She had spent the time they had been walking getting the information of precisely what the hell had happened out of Ranma, though she thought he was giving it to her far too easily. She made a mental note to decrease the price by ten percent next time he bought something off of her. She was just about to say something about the story that Ranma had told when the martial artist tensed up and started looking around the street suspiciously.

"What is it?" The brown haired girl asked, once again feeling slightly nervous.

"Someone's following us." Ranma replied, and then his voice became somewhat louder. "You wanna come out, or am I gunna have to go after ya?"

They heard a chuckle, and a small form suddenly appeared on a fence nearby. "Good work, my boy." Happosai said.

Ranma immediately got into a defensive stance, covering Nabiki, and the old man smiled. "You don't have to worry, I'm not going to touch Nabiki, though she is looking quite lovely with that slightly damp shirt!" He cackled.

Nabiki blushed, and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want, Happosai?" She drawled, before Ranma could say anything.

"O, why are you so suspicious?" The old pervert demanded, swooning melodramatically, but he stopped when he saw that neither of them were buying it. Looking at them seriously, he said something that shocked them both. "I know that you won't believe this, but I'm here on a serious matter, I swear on the name of the founding school of anything goes."

Nabiki wasn't very impressed. Happosai was almost NEVER serious, and when he was it was about seriously being a pest. To her surprise, though, Ranma had stiffened. "What do you want to say, Master Happosai?" He said, formally.

Nabiki gaped at him, but quickly regained control over her expression. "Why are you talking like that, Ranma? Even after you changed, you never struck me as the formal type."

Ranma didn't turn away from Happosai as he spoke. "He invoked the honor of the school." He replied. "That's the one thing even he doesn't play around with, even if he doesn't care much for his own personal honor."

"Hey, show a little more respect, boy!" Happosai yelled, before restraining himself. "This isn't easy, and it's harder when you're mouthing off!" Seeing that Ranma suddenly became quiet, the old man threw an annoyed look to Nabiki, who shrugged and stepped back as if to say 'I won't interfere.'

Marshaling his thoughts, Happosai spoke. "Ranma Saotome, you have saved my life today. As such, I owe you a debt of honor, one which I will fulfill. If you have a request of me, make it now."

Ranma blinked. "I did what?" He asked, confused. "I stopped Taro from hitting ya with the water, but it's a curse, not instant death. I mean, it's a pain in the…" He was stopped as Happosai waved him to silence.

"Do you know what the spring of drowned girl does to your aura?" Happosai asked. Seeing Ranma shake his head, he continued. "It reverses its polarity, switching male and female life force. In most cases, this only causes slightly odd behavior until the two equal out enough not to really be effected." He frowned deeply. "In my case, the sudden shift of all of that stored female Chi to male would drive me insane in minutes, and probably kill me within days. As much as I hate to say it, I owe you my life, now ask me your favor."

Nabiki smirked, and spoke up. "Maybe you should ask him never to grope another girl."

Ranma shook his head. "I don't even really think he's gunna keep the bargain, and besides, if I did that he'd die anyways. He lives off of female life energy." Contemplating for a moment, the young martial artist had an idea. It was so obvious that Happosai half expected a light bulb to pop on above his head. "I know what I want." Ranma said, decisively. "I want you to teach me all you know of the founding school that doesn't involve swiping women's underwear. I've seen a few of those techniques of yers, and I want 'em."

Happosai growled, but then sighed. "If that is what you wish, I will begin training you when you ask." He grudgingly said, before turning and hopping off.

When he was several blocks away, the old man's face broke into a smile. "He fell for it!" He cackled, happily. He hadn't been lying when he'd offered Ranma anything he could do. Having his aura twisted inside out and his mind torn apart would have been quite the grizzly way to die, but he had been hoping that Ranma would make the request he had. Now, with a promise that he would be taught only the better portions of the founding school, Ranma would agree to learn under Happosai, and he would be taught EVERYTHING the old man knew. "Ranma, my boy, you're quite a student." He cackled, disappearing into his bedroom in the Tendo home.

In the house's front lawn, Soun Tendo blinked after the cackling form of his master. "This isn't good at all." He muttered, and continued to cry.

HR.

In a vacant lot near the outskirts of Nerima, Pantyhose Taro drove one massive fist into the ground in frustration, bellowing at the sky. The fight hadn't gone on for very long after he'd lost the spring water.

Happosai had suddenly become MUCH braver, and within about five minutes Taro had had to retreat. That, though, wasn't the worst part.

The bull creature looked down at himself, or rather, itself, and shuddered. Not only had Happosai gotten away yet again, but what that…that… FEMBOY had tricked him into doing. If Taro's next bellow could have been understood by human ears, it would have sounded like "Femboy, I WILL kill you!"

After the mighty bellow to the sky, the cross between a bull, a crane, an eel, a yeti, an octopus and a girl lurched into the air on its unsteady wings, headed out of the district… for now.

END.

Misato: (Blinks.) Why this old thing?

Weebee:(Shrugs.) Well, with the writer's block, I figured everything was just as hard to write, so I may as well do this one.

Ryoga: You mean James thought that.

Weebee: Shut up, Hibiki.

Misato: (Sighs.) Well, it's passable... now I'm off to go get a beer.

Ami: Ma'am, you do realize this is a federation starship, and anything stronger than synthaholis restricted by command code, right?

Misato: (Looks at Weebee, who is wearing a command uniform with captain's pips.) C'mon, blind man. You and me have a date with a replicator. (Grabs him by the arm and pulls.)

Weebee: Hey! (Is pulled along, and sighs.) Miss Mizuno, you have the bridge!


	16. Title? I don't need no stinkin title!

I've got writer's block and a bad headcold, or flue, or something, but meh. Here's a new chapter of Character reconstruction.

Chapter 15, Title? I don't need no stinkin title!

Ranma ran down the street for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Fortunately, this time it had nothing to do with a flying tentacled minotaur chasing old perverts, or cursed martial artists throwing food carts at him. No, this time he was trying to get to his little sister's school before the final bell.

It was strange, but ever since he'd woken up after Saffron, he'd found himself worrying a lot more about how his mother regarded him, and having a younger sibling that looked up to him made him feel really good, so he didn't want to disappoint her. He smirked. Maybe this was just a reaction to having smaller things than tentacled minotaurs to worry about.

As he rounded the final corner to Ranko's school, he skidded to a nervous stop, seeing his sister waiting there… along with Yoiko and a very irritated looking female Ryoga. "Saotome." The bandana clad martial artist said, evenly.

Ranma blinked, wondering why he wasn't being strangled, but shrugged. "Um, hey, Ryoga." He said, cautiously.

"You will explain what happened earlier today." Ryoga said, the statement just as flat as the name, and Ranma noticed that her right fist was clenched, her left hand being held by the younger Hibiki.

"Yeah… why don't you two come home with me 'n Ranko, and I'll explain it all." Ranma said, starting to get more than a little creeped out at the lost one's Nabiki impression.

For a moment, he entertained the thought that Ryoga and Nabiki had had their personalities switched when the water hit. It would explain the way the middle Tendo sister had been acting when he dropped her off at the Tendo compound.

The group walked to the Saotome home in an uneasy silence, and Ranma noted that Ryoga was managing to follow him and lead Yoiko with very little correction. As they reached the house and walked in, Ranma called "We're home!"

Nodoka's voice was heard echoing from the living room, where she was sitting and watching the news. "Welcome home!" She called, then blinked as she saw the group that had entered. "Oh, you brought home guests?" She asked, excitedly.

Getting up, she walked over to them and bowed to Ryoga and Yoiko, before looking the elder Hibiki over. "Hmm, Ranma, is this another girlfriend?" She asked, thinking that perhaps her son had a chance of being manly after all.

Ranma winced. "Don't punch her. I know exactly what yer thinkin, but she doesn't know." He said, putting a hand on Ryoga's arm as the black haired girl's eyebrow twitched violently. "Mom, can ya get us some hot water?"

Nodoka blinked, confused, but then nodded and turned to the kitchen, wondering why the girl had looked like she wanted to kill someone when she'd said what she had. She hoped that she hadn't offended her.

Ranma sighed in relief as his mother left the room, and looked sidelong at Ryoga. "Sorry 'bout that, Mom's just a little weird sometimes."

The lost girl nodded, though her eyebrow was still twitching. "Can you tell me what happened and why I shouldn't beat you into a pulp, now?" She asked.

Ranma nodded, and the four sat down in chairs around the room. The two younger people sat back for what Ranko, at least, thought was going to be an interesting story, and Ryoga leaned forward with her arms crossed.

"First off, ya can change back 'ta normal with hot water, so you're not stuck like that forever." Ranma said, and then blinked as Ryoga nodded.

"I know." The other martial artist said. "That's why I didn't attack you on sight at the school."

"Then, um, why are you female right now?" Ranma asked, confused.

That was when Yoiko started snickering, and Ryoga gave her a dirty look. At Ranma's perplexed expression, she explained. "Miss Kinamoto thought he was a pervert and wouldn't stop hitting him whenever she saw him."

"She threatened to call the police on me for hugging my sister!" Ryoga exclaimed, indignantly.

"You did do it in a girls' bathroom." Yoiko contributed.

"Yeah, and you hugged me too." Ranko chipped in, smiling.

Ranma gave the other cursed person an odd look, but decided that he would likely have done the same thing. In fact, he was pretty sure he had come pretty close to hugging the guide when he'd demonstrated how to turn him back. "Well, that explains somethin." He conceded. "As for the rest, it started when this guy named Pantyhose…"

Ryoga and both girls snickered, causing Ranma to sigh. "Can I keep goin?" He asked, and got a nod from everyone. "Anyhow, this guy wanted the ol' freak, I mean, Happosai to change his name, but the old man doesn't want to, so…"

As Ryoga listened to what Ranma had to say, his face began to darken with rage. The pigtailed boy explained everything about what had happened, and the lost martial artist was at once astounded with how complicated things could get, and very angry with Pantyhose Taro and Happosai.

"I'm going to kill them!" Ryoga roared, her fragile emotional control breaking again. As she did so, she shot up to her feet. Unfortunately, unknown to her, Nodoka had just walked into the room with the kettle of hot water, and was walking past Ryoga's chair at that very moment.

The martial artist's arm came in contact with the metal side of the kettle, and she yelped with the pain of the heated metal before catching a face full of hot water. Nodoka blinked slowly, looking at Ryoga and then over to Ranma, and then blinked again.

"Uh, mom, this is Ryoga. He's another martial artist with a curse like mine. Guess I shoulda told ya about that." Ranma said, sheepishly.

Nodoka nodded, and then left the room, deciding that she should take a little rest.

Ryoga, meanwhile, was wincing and rubbing at his face. "That was hot." He complained, seemingly having lost his previous train of thought. It only took him a few seconds to regain it, however, and he started for the door.

"Stop!" Ranma exclaimed, surprising the other into doing just that. "What're ya planning on doing?"

"I'm gunna find that old man and the Pantyhose guy and beat them to a pulp." Ryoga replied, reasonably.

Ranma shook his head. "Yer gunna find the old man and learn what it feels like to be groped, then Taro's gunna slam you into the ground like a fencepost." He said, being brutally honest. Noticing that Ryoga, and even Yoiko, were giving him indignant looks, he sighed and decided to explain. "Ryoga, remember what I did to yer arm a few days ago?"

The lost boy nodded, looking down to his left arm and blinking as he saw that the cast was no longer there, and he wasn't in agony. Granted, he was a fast healer and he probably would have taken the thing off in a couple of days, but he hadn't even noticed the cast coming off, though now that he thought of it, it wouldn't have fit his new cursed form's arm. "How'd my arm heal?" He asked, surprised.

Ranma shrugged. "Got no idea. Maybe ya finished healin this mornin and the cast just fell off when ya changed?" He offered.

Ryoga shook his head. "No… I could still feel it this morning." He said, before frowning in thought. "Could the curse have done it?"

Ranma shrugged. "No idea." Seeing Ryoga's incredulous expression, he continued, "Look, I really don't remember what the curse did when I first got it. Was too busy tryin ta kill my old man."

"You tried to kill Dad?" Ranko asked, from where she and Yoiko were still listening in, and Ranma winced.

"Look, I was really angry, all right?" He admitted, then smiled. "But when I caught the Panda, it sure did make me feel better."

Everyone in the room except for Ranma sweat dropped at his blissful expression, and they were all thinking 'Panda?'

Clearing his throat, Ryoga recalled what they were talking about before, and cut through the bemused silence with a question. "Why did you ask me about my arm?"

Ranma shook his head, reluctantly letting an obviously happy memory go, and then started to explain. "Well, ya know what I did to ya, and I MIGHT be able to beat Taro, if I went full out 'n wasn't worried about killing 'im." Hearing the girls gasp, he winced. "As for Happosai, he's way too fast for you right now."

"Fine then, you're going to help me." Ryoga said, decisively. Ranma blinked, so he went on. "You kept that Pantyhose guy from dumping the water on Happosai, so it's still sort of your fault that I got cursed."

"What!?" Ranma said, indignantly. "I told ya why I did that!" But then, he slowly nodded. Ryoga was sort of right, after all, though he wouldn't want to think about what would have happened if Happosai had been hit. It was bad enough thinking that he would be cloned, but if what the old man had told him was true, he would have exploded into a fire of uncontained male Chi if he'd been hit with the drowned girl water, which probably would have nuked the block around him.

"Yer still dead meat if ya go up against 'em. Me 'n Ukyo were only able to keep Taro occupied because he was distracted by tryin ta splash the ol' man, but… yer right, it was sorta my fault." Then, he smirked. "I'll help ya by makin ya strong enough to at least fight near Taro's level, if not the ol' freak's."

Ryoga nodded, and reached out with one hand to grab Ranma's. "That's a promise?" He demanded.

"On my honor as a martial artist." Ranma returned, hoping that this one wouldn't screw his life up as badly as the last promise he'd made Ryoga.

HR.

"I'm home!" Nabiki called, and was surprised as she heard a loud set of footsteps tromping through the house.

"Oh, Nabiki, you're safe!" Her father exclaimed, grabbing his middle daughter and hugging her until her arms started waving around desperately. Letting her go, he held her back to look her over and frowned. "You're a bit red, are you all right?"

'Yeah, but you almost choked me to death.' Nabiki wanted to say, but kept herself limited to a nod. "What's wrong?"

"Akane told me that you and that Hibiki boy she always hangs out with had gone to find the thing that smashed the hole in the Dojo wall, and with the master fighting Taro… Did they hurt you?"

Nabiki flinched back from the sudden demon head her father manifested, and waved her hands in front of her face. "No, it's all right, I never even saw them and Ranma brought me home." Seeing her father's eyes welling up again, Nabiki winced. He must have been really agitated. It was kind of nice that he worried so much about them, but did he have to be so… spineless about it?

"Oh, your Fiancé rescued you; the schools will finally be joined!" He exclaimed, starting to drench the floor in tears.

Nabiki sighed. "Figures." She muttered, walking past the man and through the front hall, into the living room. As she settled down there for a quick look over her homework, she let her mind drift off for a moment. Though what her father had said was a complete exaggeration, Ranma had acted pretty protective when Happosai had shown up, immediately putting himself between her and the old man.

She'd been told pretty well straight out, through the way he'd acted around her that Ranma knew all about her yen for Yen, as some smart ass at school had once called it, so she had to wonder why he would do that.

Maybe, possibly… She shook her head, banishing those thoughts from her mind. She had homework to do, after all.

About half an hour later, Nabiki looked up from her work as she heard someone opening the front door. "I'm home!" Kasumi called, cheerfully. As Nabiki listened, she heard a second set of footsteps following Kasumi's. Curiously, she got up and headed into the front hall, where she saw her sister standing with a tall brown haired girl who looked a little older than she did.

"Hey Kasumi, who's this?" Nabiki asked, looking the newcomer over.

"Oh, hello Nabiki. This is Urd. Urd, this is my sister Nabiki." Kasumi said, gesturing between the newcomer and the bored looking girl.

Nabiki nodded to Urd, then looked oddly to Kasumi. "This isn't another one, is it?" She asked, frowning, though it wasn't too deep.

"Nabiki, that's not polite at all!" Kasumi chastised. "And yes, Urd arrived at the clinic this afternoon. She has a head injury, so she needs to be kept under observation."

Nabiki groaned. Kasumi liked to bring patients home from the clinic, under the assumption that they would enjoy their time as a patient more if they were in a homey atmosphere. Unfortunately, this didn't bring in any extra money for the family, and the guest was usually a drain on resources.

Nabiki gave Kasumi a look, but got a determined, yet polite, expression in response. Next to the eldest Tendo, the goddess could see the interplay of emotions as if the two had been arguing with each other, mainly because she and Belldandy often shared similar looks. "Hey, I can just call my sister back, if you'd like." She offered, tentatively.

She was immediately pinned by the same expression that Nabiki had just been given, and sighed. 'Why does she have to be so much like little sis?' she thought.

"Come, Urd-san." Kasumi said. "The guest room is upstairs."

Urd nodded, and walked past Nabiki. As she did so, she felt something impinging on the expanded awareness that her new limiters granted her, and extended her senses. What she saw in the middle Tendo's aura surprised her. There was a tiny, though still measurable, amount of Chaos magic threaded through it. Quickly, she glanced up at Nabiki's ears, seeing no ornamentation there, and then to her face, where there were no marks.

"Are you all right?" Nabiki asked, both because she may as well be nice to the newest guest, now that Kasumi had insisted she stay, and because she was getting a little nervous of Urd's staring at her.

The goddess of the past shook her head, clearing her mind. "I'm fine." She said, quickly.

Nabiki blinked, looking after the new houseguest as Kasumi lead her up the stairs. Shrugging, she decided to forget about her for now.

HR.

Later, as Urd lay in the Tendos' furo, relaxing, she had to admit that she wasn't doing absolutely horribly so far. She'd consulted the link to Yggdrasil that was now part of her mind, and learned that the Tendo family was heavily involved with the Saotomes. At least, if she'd been railroaded into staying here by a tag team of her sister and the eldest Tendo when Bell had arrived at the clinic, it had been for a good cause.

Still, what she'd seen in the brown haired girl she'd met at the door worried her quite a bit. She had dark magic of some sort all over her, even if Urd couldn't identify what it was, exactly. "Did the representative Hell sent do something to her?" She muttered, and then heard a soft huff from next to her.

"Why do you always have to think it was us, goddess?" An irritated, and unfamiliar voice said from the bathroom door.

Spinning, she saw a woman who she didn't recognize, but what she did recognize was the slash like markings along her cheeks, and a jagged sun-burst marking on her forehead. "What's a demon doing in here?" She yelled, before reigning in her shock and reducing her voice's volume.

"I'm here to work with you." The woman explained. "By order of Hild-Sama, I am to help you determine what's happening with Saotome Ranma, and to eliminate him if necessary." After saying that, the demoness raised one hand, studying her fingernails as if they were claws.

"We aren't hurting the kid if we don't have to." Urd said, with resolve. "After all, no matter which version you look at, he's a credit to my domain."

The demoness snorted, and then walked towards her counterpart. "I do what lady Hild orders me to do, and then… maybe some more." She reached out, dragging one fingernail along Urd's cheek, and the goddess reacted by reaching up and pulling the hand away. Still, she could feel a small scratch marring her skin.

Suddenly, the sound of the inner bathroom door sliding open echoed around the room, and someone stepped in. "Hey, I heard someone yelling in here, and…" Akane Tendo said, blinking at the sight of the two women, one nude and dripping water, and the other in a rather revealing black leather outfit. One of them was the new guest Kasumi had told her about, she knew, but she had no idea who the other was. Blushing, she slammed the door. Through it, Urd could hear her yell "Bunch of perverts!"

"Great." She muttered, glaring at the unknown demoness. "Now you've given them the complete wrong impression," She ignored the other's snort of laughter, "Do you want to tell me why you're here?"

The demoness shrugged. "Just to introduce myself." She said, simply, and then walked over to the sink. For a moment, Urd thought she could pass through water, like Skuld, but the demoness proved her wrong by seeming to bend space around her in an almost brain-breaking way, and then slip into the drain.

"I wouldn't take that method of transport if you paid me." Urd muttered, then sighed. "And now, given the data I have on Akane Tendo, she's going to give me dirty looks every time I see her." She smirked. "I really should have known better than to think things were going well."

END.

Please R&R!


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